A police non-com assigned to Quezon City Police Station 3 in Tandang Sora is facing a robbery complaint for allegedly frisking and taking a tricycle driver’s cash, driver’s license, and mobile phone.
Tricycle driver Tomas Suruiz, who filed the complaint, said Senior Police Officer 1 Charles Jallores and two others in police uniforms stopped him while he was riding his bicycle near Pasong Tamo Elementary School in Barangay Pasong Tamo on March 20.
According to a PhilStar report, Jallores and his accomplices allegedly frisked Suruiz to check him for drugs. The three men then confiscated Suruiz’s money, license, and phone, saying they were “stolen.”
Although the three men in police uniforms wore jackets that covered their name plates, Suruiz identified Jallores by going through Quezon City Police District personnel files.
According to the Philippine National Police Operational Procedures Manual, police officers can conduct spot checks and pat-downs only when there is a reasonable suspicion to do so. “Reasonable suspicion must be more than just a hunch or feeling. In justifying the stop, the police officer must be able to point to specific facts that, when taken together with rational inferences, reasonably warrant the stop.”
They are supposed to submit a report to their superior whether or not they find basis to make an arrest.
