MANILA, Philippines — Police nationwide have been ordered to update their investigation skills, with an emphasis on cybercrimes, particularly through the use of social networking sites like the popular Facebook.

Director General Raul Bacalzo, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), directed all his police commanders to facilitate the regular conduct of the seminar, noting the rising increase of crimes being committed through social networking sites.

“Technological advancement had brought another aspect of policing as criminals and lawless elements are now using the Internet and information technology in their ‘modus operandi,” he said.

Bacalzo is referring to Facebook, Friendster, Twitter and other sites that what police described as “cyber predators” have been using not only in duping people but also in committing gruesome crimes.

Recently, a call center agent was killed by a man she met on Facebook while television director Ricky Rivero nearly got killed when he was stabbed by a man he also met on the same site.

“We are trying to cope with all the technological advancement especially criminals have diverted in using it to their advantage,” said Bacalzo.

Last month, the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), reported 72 cases of crimes through Internet last year while the number has already reached to 56 in the past five months of this year alone.

What Bacalzo want is for the majority of the 138,000-strong PNP to be equipped with the needed investigation skills continuously hone their skills especially with the advent of new technology that also brought new kinds of criminal
activities.

He added that the PNP’s Field Manual on Investigation of Crimes of Violence and Other Crimes alone is almost enough for the investigators to improve their probe skills.

Among those that are ordered to undergo seminars are what he called First Responders (FRs), Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) Teams and Case Managers (CM).