The San Juan City Police said Sunday that it has tapped the services of civilian volunteers in the fight against criminality.

Senior Insp. Romeo Panal, chief of the local Police Community Relations Office, said a total of 40 Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVO) members and 30 Kabayan Action Group members have been recruited to help in their anti-crime campaign.

Panal said members of the CVOs and Kabayan Action Group, which are also called Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams, will be assigned to the seven community police precincts located around the city.

He said some of them will also be tapped to help policemen in beat patrol operations. However, instead of guns, the volunteers will be armed with metal sticks and handcuffs. He however said volunteers will not be allowed to man checkpoints set up to go after violators of the election gun ban as ordered by the Commission on Elections.

“They won’t be earning a single centavo for their community work. Their job starts at 8 p.m. and ends at 1 a.m. Some of the volunteers will be deployed in our seven police community precincts while the rest will join our policemen in security patrols,” Panal told the Manila Bulletin.

“Malaking tulong sila sa atin lalo na sa pagpapabuti ng security dito sa San Juan,” he added.

Panal said the volunteers, some of whom are professionals and college graduates, had undergone seminars about the BPAT functions last Friday and started doing their job the day after.

“Tapos na sila mag-seminar. Isa ring function nila eh ang pagsita sa mga kababayan natin na umiinom ng alak sa labas ng kanilang bahay dahil may batas tayo na nagbabawal dito,” he said.

City Council Ordinance Number 65, he explained, prohibits people from drinking liquor in public places.

The help of volunteers was enlisted by the police after crimes against property increased in the city in 2009 compared to the previous year.

Statistics from the Station Investigation Division of the San Juan Police said cases of robbery, theft and carjacking increased to about 230 in 2009 from the 136 cases reported in 2008.

SPO4 Sanny Nacorda, acting chief of the SID, said that from 37 reported cases of robbery in 2008, the figure jumped to 70 incidents. Theft cases, he said, also increased to 125 in 2009 from 87 cases, while car thefts rose by 74 percent to 35 cases.