Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) has launched Ops Cantas which aimed at checking and curbing crime following the recent worrying increase in criminal activities. Police spokesperson announced that so far, 683 suspects have been rounded up in the operation in Selangor alone.  (http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/08/21/Cops-round-up-683-suspects-in-Ops-Cantas-Khas.aspx)

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate and commend PDRM for this initiative to check on crime especially syndicated crime. If PDRM can keep this up, and consistently maintain such operation, I believe, it will be able to regain public confidence towards the force.

Secondly, I salute the police for finding a solution for their earlier dilemma of insufficient legal instrument to fight crime. At that time, the Barisan Nasional politicians tried take advantage of the escalating crime situation to re-introduce the archaic Emergency Ordinance which was often abused to target political dissent. However, now this was proven unnecessary by the police themselves because PDRM has utilised a rarely-used and perhaps “almost forgotten” legislation, the Crime Prevention Act 1959 (Amendment 1983) in Ops Cantas.

I hope Barisan Nasional leaders especially Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will stop trying to mislead the people about the lack of legal instrument to deal with crime. I have on numerous occasions said that the problem is not insufficient resources whether financial, legal or manpower, but rather 1) the protracted abuse and the politicisation of PDRM by federal government, 2) the mismanagement of resources in PDRM, for example for every 1 cop in CID, there are 5 others doing office work.

I also want to point out that to say as PDRM spokesperson ACP Ramli Mohamed said, that 80% of the entire PDRM are assigned to crime prevention, is misleading. If we count supporting roles, then one might as well say 100% of PDRM is fighting crime, including prosecution, asset management, clerical work or even cleaning work. What we are saying is PDRM has swayed away from its core business, that is, crime fighting. Supporting roles such as the above can be done by civilian officers or by other agencies. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is the main crime fighting unit should be beefed up to have at least 50% of PDRM resources allocated to it.

I have previously shown that from 2011 to 2013 there is a disproportionate increase in resources towards crime fighting and towards political policing.

Here I want to show that, while there are 9929 officers in the CID, if only police the rank of Inspector and above can be an “Investigating Officer” (IO), there is even lesser police officers who have investigating power to deal with crime. If this is the case, only 24% of the CID including the highest ranking officers can be made IOs. Thus, no wonder the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar said that on average an IO has to handle upto 19 cases a month and those serving in “hot spot” areas having to handle upto 30 cases monthly. (http://mynewshub.my/?p=161438).

In fact, PDRM itself admitted that there is a serious lack of officers in CID. According to the 2005 Tun Dzaiddin Royal Commission report, PDRM requested for 21,294 additional positions in the CID in 2004, when the number of CID was 6,661. That means, even by 2004 standards, CID today is still short of 18,026 officers.

This does not mean we should add more personnel to PDRM since police to citizen ratio is currently optimum. What should be done is to redeploy police from other departments and especially those doing supporting work into the CID for direct crime fighting work.

Finally, in order to regain public trust and maintain the professionalism of PDRM, an independent police disciplinary and job promotion board, such as the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) should be established urgently. I hope PDRM will take advantage of the current crisis to salvage its professionalism and re-establish itself as the protector of the people.