Community-policing programme a success

Community-policing programme a success

The crime rate in SS20 Damansara Utama has seen a sharp drop of between 20 to 40 per cent and Petaling Jaya police believe that this is due to its new community-policing programme.

Petaling Jaya district deputy police chief, Superintendent Abd Razak Elias said the decrease is due to the joint efforts of police and residents to curb crime.

"I am pleased that co-operation between residents and police has managed to reduce crime in Damansara as we all know it has the highest crime rate in Petaling Jaya. The implementation of community-policing has made residents more aware about security in their areas," he said.

Petaling Jaya police headquarters has made SS20 the pioneering area and pilot testing ground for the implementation of the community-policing programme.
The programme comes under the supervision of Bukit Aman, Selangor State police and Maktab Polis Cheras.

After the recent launch of community-policing, Razak said some residents’ associations in Petaling Jaya have called him asking for police to provide the programme in their areas.
"So far, three residents’ associations from Bandar Utama, Subang Perdana and Kuala Kubu Bharu have asked for community-policing. However, we can’t apply the programme in Kuala Kubu Bharu because it is not under our jurisdiction," he said.

He added that police would conduct community-policing projects with the National Unity and Integration Department to enhance civilian patrolling system in residential areas and also organise safety workshops for the community.

Meanwhile, Petaling Jaya district police plan to make horse patrols a permanent feature for crime prevention in residential areas.
"We have requested the Horse Unit from Bukit Aman to do permanent horse patrols at residential areas in Petaling Jaya because during the pilot project we found such patrols effective in attracting the community to work with police to curb crime," he said.

However, besides the horse patrols, conventional patrols using cars and motorcycles will be included while at the same time dialogues with residents to curb crime will continue.

November 26, 2008 - the star