PADAWAN: What do you do when you witness a crime?
Resorting to social media is not the answer. The correct thing to do is immediately lodge a police report at the nearest police station and not post statements on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp.
This is the advice from Padawan OCPD Supt Abang Zainal Abidin Abang Ahmad following a posting by a netizen on Facebook about an attempted robbery by two men.
He said postings on social media platforms give a negative impression of the level of security and are are just a way for certain individuals to get ratings on social media platforms.
“Yesterday (Mar 15), we detected a post uploaded on Facebook by a user named Ieda Eein claiming that she and her husband were almost robbed while riding a motorcycle not far from the Matang Hilir traffic light.
“In the post, she stated that two men armed with objects, came out of the bushes and headed towards them and demanded they hand over her bag.
“However, the victim and her husband managed to escape the robbers and asked for help from a car passing the area. The suspects were said to have fled as soon as they saw people heading towards them,” he said.
Abang Zainal said that so far no police report has been lodged.
The post on Facebook has been deleted by the user, said the police chief.
“Ideally, if there is such an incident, the individual or victim should come forward to make a police report so that action can be taken.
“The public should place their trust in the police,” he said.
Abang Zainal said the public can channel any crime-related information to the Padawan district police headquarters (IPD) operations room at 082-862233.
