Abstract

Barangay Commonwealth in Quezon City is one of the largest and most densely populated areas in the Philippines, making theft and petty crime a constant concern for residents and business owners. Recent incidents have highlighted critical gaps in local security: crimes often occur in public spaces despite current measures, suggesting that the visibility of police and barangay tanods is still insufficient to deter offenders. Furthermore, while CCTV cameras help identify suspects after a crime, a lack of real-time, monitoring limits their their preventive power. These issues are worsened by weak community cooperation, seen in delayed reporting and resident hesitancy. The study employs a quantitative descriptive research design to systematically analyze current conditions. Following the framework of Ramirez (2023), this approach allows for an accurate depiction of community perceptions without manipulating variables. Data were gathered using a survey questionnaire distributed to fifty (50) purposively selected respondents, consisting of fifteen (15) Barangay Personnel, twenty (15) Philippine National Police (PNP), fifteen (20) Community Members. To evaluate the effectiveness of variables like patrol visibility and authority coordination, the researchers used the Average Weighted Mean (AWM). Based on the principles of Field (2018), the following formula was applied to compute the results. The findings revealed the the "Visibility of Police barangay tanod personnel" was considered the most successful measure, rated as "Very Effective" with a weighted mean of 3.20. In contrast, "Community cooperation" received the lowest rating of 3.20 (Effective). Most respondents were males aged 42-49 who had lived in the area for 7 to 9 years. A significant 64% of respondents identified the insufficient number of tanods as the primary challenge, followed by unmonitored surveillance systems. Additional, t-test results showed that perceptions of security effectiveness vary significantly depending on the respondents personal characteristics and profile. The results underscore an urgent need to transition from passive security to active prevention. While patrols are visible, they are spread too thin to cover the barangays vast land area. The study highlights that technology like CCTV must be paired with real-time monitoring to be truly effective. Most importantly, the low score in community cooperation suggests need to build trust and better reporting mechanisms.