Saturday, February 03, 2007

A comprehensive Crime Prevention Action Plan is needed for PJ

A comprehensive Crime Prevention Action Plan for Petaling Jaya is urgently needed to prevent PJ from becoming a criminal city.

Assistant Officer of Command for Police District (AOCPD) of Petaling Jaya Superintendent Sugu on 28th January 2007 claimed that crime index in Petaling Jaya rose 22.6%, an alarming rate which not only surpassed Selangor’s 14.3% but also national average of 15.7% last year.

The increment of crime index by 22.6% last year as compared to 2005, a percentage even higher than the state and national level clearly shows that PJ is heading to be a city of crime.

There have been efforts from various parties and stakeholders in PJ, i.e. political parties, residents associations, rukun tetangga, business communities, enforcement units like Police Force, City Hall and other government agencies like RELA to fight crime but these efforts, if left uncoordinated, will not be optimized to fight crime in PJ.
The 22.6% increase in crime index in PJ is an alarming signal that it shows that police efforts to fight crime have not achieved any success. Several dialogues between the police and the residents held by local elected representatives have not been very effective in reducing crime rate in the local level. In fact, the situation has been worsening for the past two to three years.

Musa had even made a commitment to the public to fight crime especially the 3 priority areas of snatch thefts, armed robberies and drug trafficking. He had even attended a dialogue with PJ residents last year but unfortunately nothing effective took place after the dialogue to enhance social security in PJ.

Insufficient manpower to fight crime in the police force is also another major factor contributing to the worsening situation in PJ. When Christopher becomes the CID Director, he claim that he is taking charge of only 8,000 criminal investigation department officials protecting the public from criminals throughout the country. With only 8000 CID officers, how many of them are deployed to safeguard PJ folks?

The ratio of 1 policeman for every 5,500 citizens in PJ is a ratio too high from international standard of 1 to 250 citizens.

A Crime Prevention Committee of Petaling Jaya must be formed with the initiatives from various government authorities i.e. Petaling Jaya City Hall. This committee shall work as a working committee whose membership encompasses various stakeholders in PJ to formulate a long-term crime prevention action plan. Would this be more meaningful compared to just organizing countless dialogues with the police?

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