Recorded crimes in the country in the first nine months of this year dropped by 23.9 percent, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported on Wednesday.

Citing latest data, PNP spokesperson Col. Ysmael Yu said the total number of crime incidents in the country from January to September decreased to 283,549 from 372,621 incidents recorded in the same period last year.

Yu said the nine-month downward trend indicates an improved peace and order situation towards the remaining months of this year.

He added that the figure includes 178,751 peace and order index crimes from January to September, a 10.79 percent drop from 200,374 incidents in the same period in 2019.

The peace and order Index is made up of 147,976 non-index crimes (82.78 percent) and 30,775 index crimes (17.22 percent), which includes focus crimes such as murder, homicide, physical injury, theft, robbery, rape, vehicle theft, motorcycle theft, and special complex crimes of robbery with homicide, robbery with rape, robbery with serious physical injury, robbery with arson, rape with homicide, kidnapping with homicide, kidnapping with rape, and arson with homicide.

Index crimes are crimes against persons and property while non-index crimes are all other illegal acts, including violations of special laws or local ordinances.

He said all these data were collated from police blotters of 17 Police Regional Offices across the country to come up with a comprehensive and accurate picture of the nationwide crime environment.

Citing the same data, Yu said all focus crimes posted double-digit decreases with theft and robbery posting the biggest decline at 51.03 percent and 47.52 percent, respectively,

Focus crimes generally decreased nationwide, with the highest decline recorded in the Visayas at 47.58 percent, followed by Luzon at 38.13 percent, and Mindanao at 37.49 percent.

Meanwhile, crime data analysis results from the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management showed that 79.6 percent of crime incidents from January to September 2020 were declared as solved based on parameters for crime solution prescribed by the National Police Commission.

These are cases where the perpetrator has been identified and arrested and a case has been filed for prosecution of the offender.

The Crime Solution Efficiency (CSE) rating of 79.6 percent posted by the PNP over the past three quarters improved by 3.28 percent, from the 76.36 percent CSE posted over the same nine-month period in 2019.

Crime Clearance Efficiency (CCE), meanwhile, remained high at 94.9 percent in 2020, from 91.62 percent in 2019.

CCE refers to the percentage of cleared cases out of the total number of crime incidents handled by law enforcement agencies for a given period of time. (PNA)