ADUN SPEAKS We welcome Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar’s historic approval of an application by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to create an auxiliary police force unit.
Given rampant crime in Petaling Jaya, MBPJ had been applying to set up the unit since 2009. Its third attempt, in June last year, has finally been approved, according to a Star report yesterday.
However, Khalid's(left) reported restriction - that the unit must be stationed only at council-owned buildings and the PJ court complex - is nonsensical and ridiculous.
We are further perplexed by his suggestion that MBPJ can hire enforcement officers to help with reinforcement of neighborhood security.
We do not see the logic of placing armed auxiliary police personnel at council-owned buildings and the court complex, while deploying unarmed enforcement personnel on street patrols against criminals who are often armed and dangerous.
We would like to remind the IGP that the reason for MBPJ’s application was to enhance security for the people in residential and commercial areas - as well as council-owned buildings and the court complex - because there are not enough police officers to patrol the streets.
As at last year, there were only 1,300 police officers for the 620,000 people in Petaling Jaya. The current police-population ratio of 1:470 is far higher than the 1:250 recommended by the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol).
It is not as if there are insufficient police personnel in Malaysia. There are 110,000 members of the force nationwide, or one for every 270 Malaysians.
This ratio is close to the Interpol optimal ratio and surprisingly better than that of Singapore (1:396), Australia (1:342) and the UK (1:380).
However, crime is still rampant in the Klang Valley. Sports and Youth Minister Khairy Jammaluddin became the first minister to admit that crime is “not a perception” after a break-in at his house on June 30.
Misallocation of resources
There is clearly a misallocation of police personnel functionally across different departments, and geographically across states and between rural and urban areas.
Perhaps, the IGP can tell us why the number of police personnel in Petaling Jaya is only 1,300, instead of the national average of 2,300.
Residents in many parts of the Klang Valley have been forced to protect themselves by paying hundreds of ringgit annually for private security protection and installation of boom gates and guardhouses.
Perhaps the IGP can also explain why, eight years after the Royal Commission of Inquiry into police operations had recommended deploying 22 percent of the police force to fighting crime, the figure remains a mere 9 percent today.
It was precisely because of this acute shortage of police personnel and clear inaction by Bukit Aman that MBPJ applied to set up the auxiliary police unit.
In the public interest, we now call upon the IGP to lift the restrictions he has imposed on the MBPJ in implementing the scheme.
Given rampant crime in Petaling Jaya, MBPJ had been applying to set up the unit since 2009. Its third attempt, in June last year, has finally been approved, according to a Star report yesterday.
However, Khalid's(left) reported restriction - that the unit must be stationed only at council-owned buildings and the PJ court complex - is nonsensical and ridiculous.We are further perplexed by his suggestion that MBPJ can hire enforcement officers to help with reinforcement of neighborhood security.
We do not see the logic of placing armed auxiliary police personnel at council-owned buildings and the court complex, while deploying unarmed enforcement personnel on street patrols against criminals who are often armed and dangerous.
We would like to remind the IGP that the reason for MBPJ’s application was to enhance security for the people in residential and commercial areas - as well as council-owned buildings and the court complex - because there are not enough police officers to patrol the streets.
As at last year, there were only 1,300 police officers for the 620,000 people in Petaling Jaya. The current police-population ratio of 1:470 is far higher than the 1:250 recommended by the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol).It is not as if there are insufficient police personnel in Malaysia. There are 110,000 members of the force nationwide, or one for every 270 Malaysians.
This ratio is close to the Interpol optimal ratio and surprisingly better than that of Singapore (1:396), Australia (1:342) and the UK (1:380).
However, crime is still rampant in the Klang Valley. Sports and Youth Minister Khairy Jammaluddin became the first minister to admit that crime is “not a perception” after a break-in at his house on June 30.
Misallocation of resources
There is clearly a misallocation of police personnel functionally across different departments, and geographically across states and between rural and urban areas.
Perhaps, the IGP can tell us why the number of police personnel in Petaling Jaya is only 1,300, instead of the national average of 2,300.
Residents in many parts of the Klang Valley have been forced to protect themselves by paying hundreds of ringgit annually for private security protection and installation of boom gates and guardhouses.Perhaps the IGP can also explain why, eight years after the Royal Commission of Inquiry into police operations had recommended deploying 22 percent of the police force to fighting crime, the figure remains a mere 9 percent today.
It was precisely because of this acute shortage of police personnel and clear inaction by Bukit Aman that MBPJ applied to set up the auxiliary police unit.
In the public interest, we now call upon the IGP to lift the restrictions he has imposed on the MBPJ in implementing the scheme.
YEO BEE YIN is the DAP’s state assembly representative for Damansara Utama, Selangor.
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