PM: Police motorcycle patrol launched to help reduce crime

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/12/19/nation/20121219204925&sec=nation

KUALA LUMPUR: The police motorcycle patrol has been implemented earlier to cut crime as well as to help narrow the public perception gap despite the lower national crime index, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“To further show our seriousness and commitment in fighting crime, we are launching the police motorcycle patrol today involving 560 motocycles to be used for patrols in housing estates which will cover four states, 20 districts and 49 housing areas,” he said when launching the police motorcycle unit in conjunction with the United Against Crime police community programme at Bandar Kinrara here on Wednesday.

Although the motorcycle patrol initiative, involving some 1,000 motorcycle at a cost of RM20mil, was slated for implementation under the 2013 Budget, he noted he directed it to be launched before the end of this year.

He said the motorcycle patrols would help reduce incidents of crimes of opportunity in housing areas while also enabling the police to response swiftly to distress calls.

“A review of the concept will be carried out in six months and if it is found to be effective, the Government is willing to increase the number of motorcycle patrols without the need to wait for additional allocation under the 2014 Budget,” he added.

Under the concept, the motorcycle patrols will adopt a two-man buddy system operating on shifts to provide 24-hour patrols.

The 250cc Kawasaki Ninja motorcycles comes equipped with a call-set system to enable the respective district police or Bukit Aman to alert the patrol unit to a distress call.

The first phase of the initiative will see 268 motorcycle patrols operating in Selangor, 145 in Kuala Lumpur, 74 in Johor and 73 in Penang with the remaining 440 to be introduced in Jan next year.

Najib noted that despite a reduction in the crime index, there was still a perception gap' among the people that crime was still rampant.

“Based on figures and data, we cannot deny that the national crime index on the whole, be it street crimes, has shown a reducing trend and we are proud that the Global Peace Index for 2011 had placed Malaysia 19th out of 153 nations as the most safest country in the world.

“However, there is still the question of perception where it does not tally with the figures and data resulting perception gap in our effort to combat crime,” he said.

In light of this, he said that it would be a waste of time for the Government to debate the issue.

“Instead, we must take an attitude and stand that the rakyat still wants us to redouble our effort to fight crime,” he added.

To show the Government's serious commitment in addressing the issue, Najib said that several measures had been announced in the 2013 Budget recently.

This he said, included increasing police manpower by 4,000 personnel at a cost of RM155.2mil, installation of 469 CCTVs by 153 local councils nationwide at a cost of RM6mil and beefing up the auxillary police force by 10,000 personnel at a cost of RM72mil and RM10,000 annual grant for all housing resident associations.

Saw the launch that day here in Bdr Kinrara BK5 near mosque. Had to take a detour along jln BK6 just to go to GIANT!