Let’s Give the New IGP Three Months

We have a new IGP and he seems to know what he has to do to get crime reduced under his watch.

Looking at some measures he has taken, he appears to be a good successor to the former IGP so maybe he deserves a fair chance to get our police force back in the public’s good books.

Of course we still have the IPCMC to implement and looking at the various steps taken to improve the force, it appears that the authorities are following those recommendations that they like and not a holistic view of the whole process of the control of law and order.

Regarding the question of police reports, I would like to make the following observations:

We have had the experience of a burglary in Johor Bahru and Singapore over the past 15 years.

Johor Baru.
About 15 years ago, when we returned home after a short holiday in Penang we found that our house had been broken into. There was no sign of the intruder who had entered through the roof on the second floor and left through a side window also on the second floor.

We lodged a police report and the police arrived after about an hour even though our house is about five km from the Police HQ in JB.

The forensics team checked the house for prints and also took away a drawer from a cupboard that had stored some cash. The burglar apparently was quite happy with his find as nothing else was disturbed. The police took just 30 minutes to check out the scene.

Until today we have not heard anything from the JB police and I guess the IO has probably retired or maybe promoted to some rank like ASP. I suppose that drawer is collecting dust or termites in the Unsolved Crimes section.

Maybe it is left there to let superiors know that “Hey, we have so much work to do, you know?”

Singapore.This happened in the past 2 months.
The HDB flat had a positive giveaway. Newspapers had been left uncollected during weekends when my wife returns to JB.
The burglar removed the bracket holding the padlock of the grille and simply pried open the wooden door as there is some slack there that enable a professional to force open the door without having to pick the lock.

Once inside, the burglar took his time to ransack the flat. He left the air-con running when my wife discovered the burglary after mid-night. My wife and son entered the flat and found the bedroom doors locked.

Fearing that the burglar was still inside, she quickly ran downstairs to call the police. They arrived within 8 minutes in 2 cars and prepared for any eventuality like an armed burglar trying to escape. The room was empty.

I arrived from JB an hour later and the police were still there checking the scene for prints and other evidence.

The other part of their operation I like is that one officer was actually writing out the police report while interviewing my wife. No need to go to the police station.

They could not find any prints but gave my wife a Report Reference and asked her for receipts of jewelry items.

The next day the police phoned and asked for some missing info like a watch serial number. They did advise that it seemed to be a professional job and with no positive clues, the case would be difficult. They deemed it unlikely to be the work of foreign workers working on a nearby project.

For the JB case the house next door was undergoing renovations and it would have been easy for the workers there to observe us packing our luggage etc.

Some simple steps to avoid house break-ins:

 Get a friend to stay in or look after the house like collect mail.

 Cancel newspapers if you have nobody living in and hope the newspaper guy does not have criminal connections

 Program your lights, TV, radio etc to operate automatically to fool outsiders that someone is in.

 Install a burglar alarm.

 Make friends with your neighbours so that they can keep an eye open for you.


If you do the above, it is not advisable to inform anyone else as the fewer who know of your absence, the more secure your home.

I wish the new IGP success in his important role and I feel he should have been given an extension of another year service at least to fulfill that task.

photo: malaysiakini