By Wendy John
SIBU, Jan 17: Sibu police will take on a more aggressive approach in all investigations including minor cases this year, in its effort to make the town a safer and comfortable place of living for its population.
Sibu district police chief, ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit said the people might not hesitate migrating to other places if the town is not safe from crime.
“In crime prevention, we need to know of the situation on the ground so that we will be aware of real crime that is happening for us to take action,” he said this when witnessing the handing over of duty between outgoing acting Sibu Crime Prevention and Community Policing chief, ASP Kushairy Bujang and DSP Ariffin Bahar.
Stanley said from this year, the police is calling for public cooperation to report all crime cases including minor incidents, which would act as a guide for their actions of whether to launch more beat duty or to conduct more investigations.
“Previously, maybe we are not aware of smaller cases but from now on even this cases needs to be reported for us to investigate, or else it would lead to other serious crime,” he said.
He singled out the arrest of a man who had been stealing water taps as an example. The crime led the police to conduct Ops Lusoh to prevent second hand good shops from buying stolen items such as used battery and scrap metal.
“We have an operation to ensure that these shops comply to the regulations set in their trading licence that they do not buy stolen second hand items,” he said.
On aggressive investigation, he added that when the police received information of crime cases, they need to be investigated and not left hanging.
For this year, he said they would also conduct Snowball Operation to prevent minor crime cases from growing.
“From this year also, we will make ourselves omnipresent to the public every Saturday by having a three-hour meet-the-people session at different places each time. This has started last week,” he said.
DSP Ariffin, who is taking over the department, said his target and objectives was to reduce crime cases Sibu whether it involved drug or commercial crimes.
“Secondly I want to make the people feel safer residing in this town. As you all know this year is Visit Sarawak campaign. So we will try to meet this two targets or objectives for the department.
“This two targets could only be achieved if there are commitment and cooperation from all departments from crime, narcotic to head of police stations,” he said.
Ariffin who has been with the force for 37 years, wants Sibu police to have more engagement with the public. He planned to organise activities for the people to participate.
This includes meet-and-greet between the police and the people and NGOs. Others include forum, seminar and cultural activities.
“As we are the frontliner in the force, I will try to make sure that we can meet the standard response time of 14 minutes or better,” he said.
Ariffin previous posting was in the bomb disposal unit in Perak for four months. He had served in the state for 18 years, while the rest was in Peninsular Malaysia. — DayakDaily
