New IGP should explain why the police has been able to implement only 2.3% of the key Royal Police Commission recommendation to redeploy 35,000 uniformed police personnel to core policing duties to fight crime after 18 months

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Speech by
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliment, Tuesday) :  The new Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan has announced that his priority is to reduce three major crimes � snatch thefts, armed robberies and drug trafficking.

While Musa�s announcement of a �war against crime� is welcome at a time when the high crime rate and the fear of crime have topped the fears and even obsessions  of Malaysians, what is the difference between Musa�s latest statement  with his previous declarations and responsibilities as Deputy Inspector-General of Police to fight crime?

Without specific  targets on crime incidence or time-lines on the reduction of the crime index, will Musa�s another �war against crime� end up as another forgotten declaration in the losing war against crime?

At long last, after repeated reminders by DAP MPs and leaders as well as civil society activists on the paramount importance of having police visibility in public places as an important strategy to fight and reduce crime, the country�s top policeman is talking the same language when he said he wants his officers, especially Officers in Charge of Police Districts (OPCDs), to deploy more uniformed personnel to �hit� the streets and be visible at all times.

Musa said that for a start, he had directed the redeployment of 800 personnel in Bukit Aman whom he found in a recent survey to be doing overlapping duties involving the same job.

Musa said: �These personnel should be doing real policing work as we are short-staffed on the ground�.

While Musa is to be commended for this redeployment of unproductive  uniformed police personnel amounting to 800 officers, the question is how this scandalous state of affairs could continue for  18 months after the Royal Police Commission report which specifically called on the police to  launch a concerted drive against crime with a re-deployment of the uniformed police personnel to core policing functions.

The Royal Police Commission Report estimated that an additional 35,000 uniformed police personnel could be immediately released for core policing function to fight crime and the fear of crime in such a redeployment. 

This was not done for the past 18 months, or many lives would have been saved and sufferings avoided with a drop in the crime index.

Now Musa talks about redeployment of 800 police officers to core policing function �  but why has the police taken so long as 18 months to implement a key recommendation of the Royal Police Commission Report on this matter, but  only for 800 persons or 2.3% of the 35,000 uniformed police personnel for redeployment?

The new Inspector-General of Police  should explain why the police has been able to implement only 2.3% of the Royal Police Commission recommendation  to redeploy 35,000 uniformed police personnel to core policing duties to fight crime after 18 months.

Is this proof of  inefficiency, incompetence and insensitivity on the part of police authorities responsible for the implementation of the Royal Police Commission recommendations?

Or worse, is this proof of the overall police rejection of the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission Report, despite the police leadership�s  �lip-service� support?

(12/09/2006)