Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE)—though not in­tend­ed to tar­get vi­o­lent crime—is con­tribut­ing to a marked de­cline in homi­cides so far this year.

“It is im­por­tant to un­der­score that the cur­rent State of Emer­gency was not im­ple­ment­ed to ad­dress homi­cide rates but rather in re­sponse to a spe­cif­ic and cred­i­ble threat to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty. Nonethe­less, the da­ta sug­gests that the height­ened vig­i­lance and in­ten­si­fied en­force­ment op­er­a­tions un­der this SoE may be con­tribut­ing to a re­duc­tion in vi­o­lent crime,” Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro stat­ed.

His com­ment fol­lowed a re­cent uptick in fa­tal shoot­ings.