KUCHING: Five men who were armed with blunt objects robbed and terrorised 24-hour convenience stores in the city since last year have been arrested early this month.
According to Kuching police chief ACP Ng Ah Lek, the perpetrators have been placed under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca), and since their arrest, there has been a decrease in the crime index.
Poca was initially enacted to control and prevent organised crime by targeting criminals, members of secret societies, terrorists and other undesirable persons in Malaysia.
The Malaysia Royal Police Force has the power to arrest and detain an individual based on the provisions under Poca without trial for a period of up to 60 days. Suspects would be required to wear electronic monitoring device (EMD) wherever they go. “There is a decrease of crime index from Jan 1 to 21 this year compared to the same corresponding period last year. This is due to the many arrests made by Kuching CID.
“Meanwhile, a total of 101 cases have been recorded this year compared to 93 cases last year which is a drop of 7.92 percent,” said Ng when addressing a monthly police assembly here yesterday.
Besides the arrests, the police also smashed a vehicle and motorcycle theft syndicate with the arrest of seven individuals.
In addition, the police have arrested 42 bad hats in Kuching district in the fight against crime. A murder case was also solved with the arrest of six suspects to assist in the investigation.
On the traffic side, road fatality has decreased from 32 cases last year to 24 cases this year. A total of 71,450 summonses were issued last year while 2,731 summonses have been issued in the past three weeks for various traffic offences.
“Police will continue with community policing where members of the force would go to the ground to meet members of the public. Through such policing, there would be a strong interaction and trust from the people. It would also gain the public’s trust to provide information to the police on crime cases which would be kept confidential,” Ng said.
Calling on his men to continue pledging their loyalty to the force, he said that by working diligently and with loyalty, they would be able to earn the people’s respect.
During the assembly Ng also presented letters of appreciation to his men and civilian staffers.
