CCTV not the only cure to fight crime

Budget Speech (8)

For the past one year, there were several high profile criminal cases in Selangor.

Unless something drastic but constructive is to be done by Selangor Police Contingents, else we will continue to witness series of young-girl abductions in Selangor. In fact, the latest crime statistic released by Bukit Aman Police Headquarters tells how serious crime rate in Selangor is.

Selangor recorded a hike of 21.86 percent in serious crime, which was also the fourth highest in the country in 2007, signifying worrying trend that the people can no longer feel safe inside and outside their homes.

If the statistic is compared with Kuala Lumpur which is located in the centre of Selangor, one will ask why crime rate in Selangor has gone up so high compared to our neighbour in Kuala Lumpur.

In 2007, out of a total of about 50,000 violent crimes in Malaysia, about 15,000 cases happened in Selangor and this is about 30% of the total number. A year before that, the percentage was only 28%, signifying worrying trend and more and more violent crimes concentrated in Selangor, which was self-proclaimed by the Selangor state government as a developed state over the past two years.

Although Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are both located in the centre of Klang Valley, violent crime rate in Kuala Lumpur has only increased by 1.33% from 7,539 cases in 2006 to 7639 cases in 2007. It is mind-boggling given the fact that there can be such a huge gap when both states are considered highly urbanized.

We can neither afford to totally rely on equipment alone to fight crime nor to be so naïve to believe that crime index will drop so much as when we have state-of-the-art equipment to fight crime.

For example, CCTV must also be coupled with fast response time. London is said to be the capital of CCTV but it was revealed that 80% of the crime unresolved with the installation of more than ten thousands CCTVs in London as what is reported in the following report:

Tens of thousands of CCTV cameras, yet 80% of crime unsolved

By Justin Davenport, Evening Standard Last updated at 15:56pm on 19.09.07

London has 10,000 crime-fighting CCTV cameras which cost £200 million, figures show today.

But an analysis of the publicly funded spy network, which is owned and controlled by local authorities and Transport for London, has cast doubt on its ability to help solve crime.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act.

This explain the latest situation with relation to CCTV and local councils should stop believing the myth of spending more money for more CCTVs will help to reduce crime.