EIGHTEEN more Philippine National Police (PNP) units and offices are now International Organization for Standardization or ISO-certified which means they have been given the seal of approval for their trust and credibility when it comes to serving the public, PNP chief, General Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr. said yesterday.

ISO certification is a seal of approval from a 3rd-party body that a company runs to one of the international standards developed and published by the ISO which is a worldwide federation of national standard bodies from more than 160 countries, with one standards body representing each member-country.

Getting an ISO certification has been a dream come true for the different police offices and units, the award always considered as an ‘asset’ for the 226,000-strong organization which aims to become a highly capable, effective and credible police force working in partnership with a responsive community towards the attainment of a safer place to live, work and do business.

Azurin said that having conferred the prestigious ISO-Certified 9001 by the International Organization for Standardization, the 18 police offices and units assure the public of better and more efficient services.

The ISO certification is also crucial to the PNP’s goal to ensure accountability and uprightness in the police exercise of discretion as well as to achieve efficiency and effectiveness of its members and units in the performance of their law enforcement functions.

The top cop was joined by Philippine Army chief, Lieutenant Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr. and TUV Rheinland Philippines, Inc. managing director Tristan Arven G. Loveres during the conferment of the ISO certificates for the 18 units and offices at Camp Crame.

The 18 includes the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management; Directorate for Operations; Directorate for Logistics; Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management; Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine Development; Directorate for Research and Development ; and Directorate for Information Communication Technology Management.

The others are the PNP Women and Children Protection Center; Engineering Service; Communications and Electronics Service; Criminal Investigation and Detection Group; Special Action Force; Maritime Group; Police-Community Affairs and Development Group; Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies; the Anti-Cybercrime Group; and the Quezon City Police District.

“For this recognition, we thank the members of the community and all our stakeholders for their support and cooperation and for continuing to trust in the police as your servants and protectors,” Azurin said.

“Let these resounding achievements of our PNP units and personnel serve as the foundation of our MKK=K o ang Malasakit, Kaayusan at Kapayapaan tungo sa Kaunlaran as our peace and security framework for the future, transforming the PNP into a stronger and more responsive police organization,” the top cop added.

Since 2018, a total of 28 police units and offices have already been given the distinction of being ‘ISO-Certified, starting from the PNP Crime Laboratory, now the PNP Forensics Group which became the first ISO-Certified PNP Unit.

Other PNP units certified by the International Organization for Standardization since then were the Office of the Chief PNP, the PNP Directorate for Plans, National Capital Region Police Office, PNP General Hospital, Highway Patrol Group, Police Security and Protection Group, Firearms and Explosives Office, PNP Academy and the PNP Retirement and Benefits Administration Service.

A company or organization certified as “ISO 9001” is found to be keeping a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business, monitoring processes to ensure they are effective, keeping adequate records, checking output for defects, with appropriate and corrective action where necessary, regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness, and facilitating continual improvement.