ACP Shafie Ismail
Sibu police want better rapport with public to make up for lack of manpower, logistics
SIBU: Sibu is considered a third tier town (which is considered not urgent), thus it is slow in getting better logistics and manpower needed to combat crimes, says its police chief ACP Shafie Ismail.
As such, he said, the police here are working hard to establish better rapport with the some 300,000 residents of this riverine town.
“So our main focus is to work closely with members of the public by getting useful information from them to combat crimes here,” he said, adding he himself would not want to miss any appointment or meetings with members of the public to seal better relationship with them.
“I would not want to miss any meetings with members of the public because that would be the best opportunities for me to know more about them and also getting feedbacks and information from them. And this way also, the people will know us better,” Shafie told BAT3 at his office here yesterday.
He also urged members of the public here not to paint a negative picture of the local police force and make negative statements about them.
“My advice to the people of Sibu is this; let’s work together to make Sibu a safer place to live in. For me, if I were given the choice, I would prefer to retire here,” said the 53-year old and Besut, Terengganu-born Shafie, who had turned down three promotions since last year.
His wife is a teacher at Tung Hua secondary school here and the couple is blessed with six children aged between 16 and 25.
Shafie said since his transfer here six years ago, he had grown fondly of Sibu, which is a great contrast to Johor Baru, where the crime rate is 10 times higher during his previous posting.
“For me, Sibu is comparatively peaceful and manageable compared to many major towns in the Peninsula. But we do have major crimes here which we want to minimise such as murder cases as well as theft cases,” he pointed out.
He revealed that in the past six months 12 murder cases had been reported here, out of which, nine had been solved.
“And out of these nine cases, seven have been charged in court with the remaining two cases involving foreigners who could not be traced of their whereabouts.
“The remaining three murder cases which have remained unsolved are namely an identified mainland Chinese woman who was found murdered in February, the second case involved two Indonesians who were murdered in a rubber garden in April and the third one also involved an Indonesian who was found murdered in Penasu, sometime in May,” he revealed.
As most of the solved murder cases were related to cheap alcoholic drinks, Shafie appealed to the people to minimise intake of such drinks to prevent untoward incidents.
“As these cheap alcoholic drinks can easily be obtained here, I would like to advise the people not to over-indulge themselves in it as many of these major crimes were committed during or after drinking sessions,” he cautioned.
On theft cases, Shafie revealed that Sibu recorded an average of 1.5 units of motorcycles stolen per day since the beginning of the year. As for thefts of 4WD vehicles, especially the luxury ‘Ninja King’ since January, he said 49 cases were reported in the last six months.
“For the first three months of this year, the crime index here has increased by 20 per cent. But after we have mobilised our MPV units in the hot spot areas, the crime index has since decreased,” he said.
Shafie believed that both thefts of motorcycles and 4WD vehicles were masterminded and committed by syndicates.
“We strongly believe syndicates were involved in the thefts of both motorcycles and 4WD vehicles as indicated by their modus operandi,” he said.
As such, he warned these bad hats that his men are hot on their heels.