IGP: Men in blue doing a good job

He says the independent panel of international observers on police performance gave a high rating for the police force's efforts to fight crime.

KUALA LUMPUR: Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar today shrugged off the opposition’s claim that police is “covering up” crime statistics to hide its alleged failure to combat rising crime.

He said an independent panel comprising international observers had rated highly their crime-fighting programme under the National Key Result Areas target which proved that the police was doing a good job.

The panel, he revealed, was brought in by Putrajaya’s efficiency unit Pemandu to assess the police’s progress under the anti-crime NKRA.

“Even they said we are on the right path and rated our performance highly,” he told reporters here.

On Monday, DAP publicity chief Tony Pua claimed that Putrajaya and the police were not providing truthful statistics on its crime reduction efforts in order to embellish its track record especially with the national polls nearing.

“Given the complete lack of transparency as well as the sheer lack of consistency in the state of crime in the country, it is not a surprise that the Malaysian public do not trust the authorities.

“What makes it worse is the government’s refusal to acknowledge the fears the men and women on the street face when they are in or out of their houses,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP had said.

Pemandu and the Home Ministry claimed crime had dropped by 11% last year, with street crime plunging 40% since the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) was put in place two years ago.

But the announcements came amid national panic over a recent spate of high-profile kidnapping and assault cases.

Ismail denied that the cases proved police inefficiency and said they were often “blown out of proportion” to serve the interests of “certain quarters” in an apparent swipe at the opposition.

“I believe we are doing a good job…. of course there are crimes but that doesn’t mean it is going on every minute or every second,” he said.

The police chief said measures had been taken to address public concerns over the kidnapping, notably one of which left a teacher fighting for her life at a car park in a prominent shopping mall here.

He said the police were now working with shopping mall operators on a safety rating system to help them plan for increased police presence in areas identified as high-risk.

“This is also progress,” he added.