Thursday, May 15, 2008

Police Recruitment & Organisation

My question on state of recruitment for new police officers as well as its organisation got answered yesterday. I'll provide the question and answer verbatim here before providing my comments. I asked the Minister of Home Affairs to state:
...kedudukan pengrekrutan anggota polis yang amat diperlukan untuk mengurangkan kes jenayah yang amat serius dan apakah jumlah anggota polis terkini mengikut pecahan tanggungjawab mereka.
The reply was as follows:
Untuk makluman Ahli Yang Berhormat, pada tahun 2007, PDRM telah melantik seramai 4070 anggota berpangkat Inspektor dan Konstabel. Daripada jumlah tersebut, seramai 1,030 anggota berpangkat Inspektor (753 lelaki, 277 wanita) dan seramai 3,040 anggota berpangkat Konstabel (2,169 lelaki, 871 wanita).

Bagi tahun 2008, PDRM telah merancang untuk melantik 10,000 anggota polis berpangkat Inspektor dan Konstabel. Daripada jumlah tersebut, seramai 1,000 anggota berpangkat Inspektor (850 lelaki, 150 wanita) dijangka akan dilantik pada bulan Jun dan September ini.

PDRM juga telah merancang untuk melantik seramai 9,000 anggota polis berpangkat Konstabel yang terdiri daripada anggota lelaki dan wanita. Bagi fasa pertama iaitu seramai 768 anggota lelaki telahpun dilantik pada 16 Februari 2008 dan kini ditempatkan di PULAPOL Muar (515 anggota) dan PULAPL Kota Kinabalu (253 anggota).

Bagi fasa kedua, seramai 1,590 anggota lelaki dan wanita akan dilantik iaitu pada 15 Mei 2008 (850 anggota lelaki) dan pada 1 Jun 2008 (740 anggota wanita). Anggota-anggota berkenaan akan ditempatkan di PULAPOL Kuching dan PULAPOL Ayer Hitam.

Jumlah keanggotaan polis mengikut pecahan tanggungjawab jabatan-jabatan di bawah PDRM berakhir 31 Mac 2008 ialah seramai 96,406 orang iaitu Jabatan Pengurusan (35,662) Jabatan Keselamatan Dalam Negeri dan Ketenteraman Awam (31,635), Jabatan Logistik (10,793), Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah (8,673), Cawangan Khas (4,923), Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Narkotik (3,357), Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Komersial (1,141 dan Jawatan Kader (222).
For the year of 2007, PDRM has recruited a total of 4,070 officers as with the rank Inspectors and Constables. This forms part of the objective of the PDRM to recruit some 60,000 new officers to meet the challenges of the rapid rise in crime in Malaysia.

This recruitment to date is clearly short of what is required to meet the needs of the country. Hence, what is needed as an immediate short term measure is to restructure the police force and redeploy more police officers to be patrolling the streets as recommended by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police (Royal Police Commission).

However, based on the information provided by the Minister, clearly no such actions to restructure the police force have been undertaken.

As of 31 March 2008, the allocation responsibilities remain largely unchanged from the previous years as follows:
Administration & Management 35,662 37.0%
Internal Security & Public Order 31,635 32.8%
Logistics 10,793 11.2%
Criminal Investigations 8,673 9.0%
Special Branch 4,923 5.1%
Narcotics Investigations 3,357 3.5%
Commercial Crimes 1,141 1.2%
Cadet 222 0.2%
Clearly from the figures presented, the Police Force remains heavily lobsided in terms of structure with a overstaffed administration and management as well as logistics department (48.2%) as opposed to the criminal investigations department (9%). Combining the internal security and public order department with the Special branch will add to another 37.9% of the entire force.

The crime index in Malaysia rose by a record 45% between 2003 and 2007 with violent crimes increasing by 119% and initial figures provided by the Government shows that the upward trend is continuing unabated in 2008.

Is it not of utmost urgency that the Royal Malaysian Police immediately reallocate and restructure at least 30% of the police force, currently within the administration & management, internal security & public order, logistics as well as special branch to the understaffed Criminal Investigations Department and their related units to ensure that the unprecendented escalation of crime is stopped on its tracks.

If no action is taken to restructure the police force, while waiting for new recruits to be gradually hired and trained, then clearly the Barisan Nasional government has failed to learn its lessons from the elections of March 8th, and is not serious about its so-called “All-out War Against Crime” announced by the Prime Minister a year ago.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tony,

May I ask how the responsibilities of MPs are distributed within DAP or the broader Pakatan Rakyat coalition? Of course every MP should take a keen interest in all issues affecting their constituency, but specialization can help a lot too.

You have, as expected, shown a predisposition towards economic issues. Your other "portfolio" of sorts is to be education I am sure.

But who is specializing on the cops? I think a more focussed specialized approach would be good, given the gravity of the situation.

"Clearly from the figures presented, the Police Force remains heavily lobsided in terms of structure with a overstaffed administration and management as well as logistics department (48.2%) as opposed to the criminal investigations department (9%). Combining the internal security and public order department with the Special branch will add to another 37.9% of the entire force."

I think a claim like that would seem a lot more substantive if accompanied by facts and figures, e.g. if you could cite the corresponding pie chart for neighboring countries to really SHOW that our force is imbalanced.

Otherwise, from a critical perspective, regardless of the merits of your assessment, it is too easy to dismiss it as "coffee shop talk" and your prescription to "reallocate and restructure at least 30% of the police force" is a "simply goreng" prescription.

Personally, I do agree with your views on this... but surely we can make the case more strongly to really hammer it into the deluded ones who think we can carry on as is!

To throw in an additional 2 sen, I think Dr Tan should take point on policing, not necessarily because of his seniority, but because in the past he has issued highly specific and I think worthwhile recommendations on how to better manage the police force. Teresa is the other name that comes to mind, but I guess she has enough on her plate as is.

Golf Afflicted said...

With regards to the restructuring of the force, it wasn't my original idea. It was one of the suggestions by the Royal Commission on Police, which has done a comprehensive and extensive study on the issue.

Anonymous said...

Oh I see, excellent. Thanks for the clarification.

Anonymous said...

Its about the quality of the police force.

How can they serve when they have so little knowledge of how things work ?

Those new Police officer sees it as a opportunity to take bribes when they are selected. Most of them hides below the highway bridge to get their rice bowl.
The police force is pretty much ****** up.
From head to toe.

They are afraid to answer the people. We have to do our own typing in SS2 police station. We have to ask where to report. I think very soon we will have to bring in our own guns to protect ourselves.

Musa Hassan is a great police head. However its not easy for him to handle because the political factor in Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

Let us get back to the root of the problem. The cost of living in Malaysia i would say is very high compared to other oversea countries if you were to calculate by the cost of living vs the income. The imbalance growth of country has resulted much despair to the people. There were no clear Vision or Hope given to the people for us to be willing to bear the hardship with the government. Neither is there any guidelines for us to work together as a country which is "The Leader and The People".Instead we were given more disappointment. Many have resorted to crime out of desperate and hunger for survival. I used to be able to go for a walk all by myself at my residential area 10 years ago. Now, it's not even safe for me to even stand infront of my house all alone fearing someone will come with a parang to rob me. That's what happened to my dad one year back right infront of our own house at 5pm plus.

Mr. Tony Pua, i have always admire your passion for politics and the country - The People. And as a citizen, i would like to thank you for bringing up the issue of crime in the country. But if our government do not tend to improve the country's economic growth, or maybe for them it's already good enough then i would say things will still remain the same.Yes, the question for allocation is good but trust me that they will always have good templates to justify all their answers and which we will take note and ensure it's properly executed.

You have done a great job by fulfilling almost everything you have comitted during your election speech. Not all may be executed but i am seeing the effort. At least i feel yourself and the party are doing more to curb the crime problem which is from the root. And hopefully the other party can support you by providing more resources. Do not feel disencouraged for not be given the top priority YET to speak in the parliament. We trust in you that by your hearing and observation, you are even able to lead us to country full of vision. Action speaks louder than words. Keep up the good work Mr. Tony, you have my support.

nckeat88 said...

If the police are paid chicken feed, who want to be police especially the Chinese. If the police are lowly paid (those who patrol our street), what quality do you expect to get from them. Most likely they are not university graduate.