Special Channel For Community Leaders To Pass Info To Police

TAWAU (Sabah, Malaysia), March 30 (Bernama) -- Police will provide certain channels to allow rural community leaders such as village chief and 'Tok Batin' to pass information to the police regarding the situation in their areas, CID chief Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin said. Among other things, he said, they would be supplied with the mobile phone numbers of district police chiefs or station chiefs and at the same time police would also keep their numbers to facilitate communication. He said the initiative mooted by Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar had been implemented in several areas including in Balung, Tawau, and would be expanded nationwide as an additional measure to provide an avenue for the society to contribute in crime prevention. "We welcome information from the society. The information we receive so far are still very low compared to what we expect. "We want more cooperation. If people are facing crime-related problems in their villages or towns, they should convey the information for us to analyse and draw up an action plan," he told reporters after opening the high-policing programme, here on Friday. The programme is the first launched by Mohd Bakri in Sabah, which saw among others the CID chief, Sabah Police Commissioner Hamza Taib, Tawau Municipal Council President Ismail Mayakob and senior police officers making a walkabout and meeting traders and people around here. Mohd Bakri said the lack of information channelled to the police could be due to the lack of knowledge on the channel they could use to do so, or it could also be due to the perception that the information they had was trivial. "If there are illegal immigrants entering our area and we choose not to inform the police, we could end up in trouble when they commit a crime," he said. On the programme on Friday, he said, the response among the society was good. Traders met here said they were happy to see police making their rounds in their areas. "This is a good move by the police," said sales assistant Yati Saleh, 34. "Programmes like this should go on because it will strengthen the ties between the police and the society. We feel safe in their presence." -- BERNAMA