A GRADUATE of the prestigious United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy who previously commanded the PNP Academy is now the top detective of the police force.

Major General Eric E. Noble, a member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) ‘Tanglaw-Diwa’ Class of 1992 took over as the new director of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management last week on orders of PNP chief, General Benjamin C. Acorda Jr.

The PNP-DIDM is the main PNP office tasked to direct and supervise the investigation of crimes and other offenses in violation of the country’s laws. It has the power to supervise the investigation of and monitor complaints pertaining to police matters and cases referred by other government/private agencies, organization and/or individual persons.

The office also maintain crime statistics and analyzes crime trends which are useful in managing police operations.

Retiring from the police force on January 16 next year, Noble is one of the very few PNP officials who has graduated from the FBI National Academy. Students of the FBINA are invited after a thorough nomination process.

The Academy students attend both classroom and physical fitness training alongside FBI special agent-trainees. He attended the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia in 2014 and at the same time earned a graduate certificate in Criminal Justice Administration from the University of Virginia.

Noble likewise earned a Master of Science in Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership from the University of San Diego, USA in 2020.

The new PNP-DIDM director became a Police Lieutenant after graduating from Fort del Pilar in 1992. He completed his Bachelor of Laws in 2004 at the Jose Rizal University and his Masters’s in Management degree at the Philippine Christian University in Manila in 2011.

As a junior officer, he became a veteran of two United Nations’ peacekeeping missions, first in war-torn Kosovo from 2000 to 2001 and 2nd, as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the strife-torn Haiti.

The official also served as a Philippine diplomat in the U.S. when he became the Police Attache at the Liaison Office on the U.S. West Coast from September 12, 2017 to September 1, 2019.

A holder of a Career Service Executive Eligibility and a Police Executive Service Eligibility, Maj. Gen. Noble is also a licensed Real Estate Broker and Appraiser who passed the 2016 examination administered by the Professional Regulations Commission.

Born on January 16, 1968 in Dagupan City but raised in Santa Barbara, Pangasinan, Noble is an award-winning cop. In 2009, he became one of the Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service and the following year received the Presidential Lingkod ng Bayan Award for outstanding government employees and public officials.

During the celebration of the Pangasinan foundation day on April 5, 2010, he was honored by the Pangasinan provincial government as one of the province’s outstanding citizen.

In July 2011, he was adjudged as the nationwide best in Police-Community Relations while serving as the chief of the Meycauayan City Police Station in Bulacan.

He also served as director of the Cebu Police Provincial Office from October 2016 to October 2017 and was named as the Best Senior Police Commissioned Officer for Administration in Central Visayas in 2017.

During his incumbency, the Cebu PPO was adjudged as the Best Provincial Police Office in the region and the 2nd best in the country.

He also was the director of the Police-Community Affairs Development Group from October 2020 to August 7, 2022 until he was designated as PNPA director on August 8, 2022. As PNPA director, he instituted more reforms in the Academy in order to produce more outstanding and disciplined future police, fire and jail officers.

Noble is already the recipient of over 135 PNP medals and recognition including four Outstanding Achievement award, 45 PNP Efficiency Medals, three PNP Medals of Merit and a Visayas and Mindanao Campaign Medal.

He takes over a PNP-DIDM which made a number of major accomplishments under now retired Maj. Gen. Eliseo DC Cruz.

The PNP-DIDM under Cruz’s predecessor, retired Maj. Gen. Jireh Omega D. Fiel attained the ‘Institutionalized Status’ after a painstaking series of evaluations linked to the Performance Governance System (PGS) which is a validation of the effective implementation and roadmap alignment of every PNP unit’s strategies, initiatives, and best practices through regular unit scorecard assessment in collaboration with its external stakeholders and strategic partners from different sectors.

The “institutionalized” status is the highest rank in the PGS — a performance management and measurement tool that aims to translate organizational goals into breakthrough results guided by a set of performance indicators and matrices, which was adopted by the Civil Service Commission in 2010.

The PNP-DIDM is the first among 10 PNP Directorial Staff Offices to be conferred the highest PGS status.

The office last March launched its digital booking system or ‘e-booking’ to facilitate easy access to crime data as part of efforts to modernize crime solution operations.

Under the system, the police force would fully digitalize the booking process of arrested persons which makes the collection and cross-matching of fingerprints through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) faster and more efficient.

As a result, police investigators and intelligence operatives will now have easy access to the data storage system which covers arrested law offenders across the country.

Prior to that, the PNP for many years had been manually collecting information of arrested persons. The booking procedures include getting the fingerprint and taking photos of the arrested law offenders.

As a result, the collection and cross-matching of fingerprints is now expected to be faster and more efficient and will further increase the crime solution efficiency of the police force.

The system also helps ease the work of police officers assigned to process crime scene as they only need a few minutes to compare lifted fingerprints with the records already in the AFIS database.

The PNP-DIDM also initiated the National Police Clearance System (NPCS) without any private provider and opened more offices where the public could easily obtain a police clearance which is usually a requirement in job applications and other government and private transactions.

The PNP signed a memorandum of agreement with SM Supermalls and Citymall for the expansion of the NPCS in their respective commercial establishments.

The PNP-DIDM initiative was aimed at bringing police services to the public at their most convenient time and location, all in compliance with the directive of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr. to find ways to facilitate government transactions with the public.

The NPCS is now one of the revenue-generating mechanisms of the police organization which is trying its best to effectively address the emerging crime trend and improve its crime solution efficiency with the use of technology.

Noble said they will be fully banking on IT on information technology to further improve the PNP’s crime solution rate. To do that, he said they will try to catch up with all available technology to accomplish their mission faster and better because even criminals especially those involved in cybercrimes are already technology-driven nowadays.

“This is all about smart policing,” the official said as he vowed to further improve their Case Management and Analysis System, Case Information and Database Management System, the NPCS, the e-Rogue Gallery System, the e-Warrant System, their Facial Recognition System and Crime Information, Reporting and Analysis System.