The police should not rest on their laurels based on their success in reducing street crime by 35 per cent and the nationwide crime index by 15 per cent last year, Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar said today.
Instead, the force should continue to work hard to reduce crimes and produce another good result this year, he said.
“We must not rest on our laurels. The police must work closely with the local communities as their participation is very important to help lower the crime rate in the country,” he added.
“Whenever and wherever, there is close co-operation and ties (between the public and the police), criminals and other trouble-makers tend to shy away. Such a bond is like a wall or an obstacle to those with evil intention,” he said after attending high-profile policing and walkabout programmes at the Air Itam wet market today.
It was reported on March 27 that last year’s nationwide crime rate had recorded a dip for the first time in four years, as reflected by a 35 per cent drop for street crime and 15 per cent for the crime index under the Reducing Crime National Key Result Area (NKRA).
However, Ismail said under the NKRA’s 29 unwritten initiatives, the police force needed to create more initiatives to tackle crime cases.
“We must create more initiatives such as the Crime Investigation Department response team, to solve more crime cases,” he said, adding that the police force would be a role model to other countries if it continued to produce good results, in terms of reducing the crime index.
Earlier, Ismail handed over 160 units of Mobile Card Acceptance Device to four police chiefs in the northern region states.
The new equipment will enable the police to check on the profile of wanted persons, missing persons, summons record, vehicle owner’s record, National Registration Department (NRD) record and foreign visa record, via Mykad.
– Bernama
C. Khor
CJMY
