Foundation to pick best police station in Malaysia

0

KUCHING: The Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) is looking for the best police station in the country.

WELCOME: Kamarudin (second right) with (from right) Mun, Wan, Azizah (fifth right) and MCPF exco members during the tour.

WELCOME: Kamarudin (second right) with (from right) Mun, Wan, Azizah (fifth right) and MCPF exco members during the tour.

MCPF vice-chairman Datuk Kamaruding Mohd Ali told a press conference yesterday that the criteria includes cooperation between the police and the public as well as the police station’s performance.

“We from MCPF, affiliated to a non-governmental organisation (NGO) Altus Global for the last five years have been conducting the police station visit programme,” he said after touring the Tabuan Jaya police station here yesterday.

He said the programme, coordinated by Altus Global, an international NGO, is held worldwide.

“The programme started in the country in 2006, where only Klang Valley in Kuala Lumpur participated. In 2007 two more police stations, in Ipoh and Melaka participated. In fact, the Bercham Police Station in Ipoh was named the best police station in Asia that year,” said Kamarudin.

He explained that early last year, MCPF launched a nationwide programme called ‘Balai Polis Cemerlang’ to identify the best police station in the country.

Each state, he said, would nominate their best police station to be evaluated by a panel from MCPF.

“Tabuan Jaya Police Station is our last stop. We hope that with the programme, the performance of the police force in the country will be improved further,” he said.

The results would be known in March.

“The winner of the title would send their representative to participate in a two-week attachment programme to overseas police stations.

“We are working together with Bukit Aman for this attachment programme so that they can learn and get positive aspects of policing,” he said.

On another note, Kamarudin said cooperation between members of the public and the police is very important in crime prevention.

“With the programme, I also hope that there would be more cooperation between the police and the members of the public.

“Like in Pengkalan Kubur in Kelantan, members of the public have walkie-talkies to communicate with each other to watch for crimes in their area. Crime there has been very minimal because of the involvement of the public in fighting crime,” he said.

Kamarudin also revealed that a proposal has been submitted to the government to set up programmes for the public to be involved in crime prevention and to work closely with the police.

Also present during the MCPF tour were former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Datuk Christopher Wan Soo Kee, Unity and National Integration Department deputy director general Azizah Ariffin, Tabuan Jaya police chief Sub Inspector Tozen Nyagam and Kuching OCPD Mun Kock Keong.