A salute to the Police (PDRM)

If it's true that the Police will not set up roadblocks this festive season, let me be the first to salute the decision. There's no way to set up a roadblock without causing traffic jams. And roadblocks are necessary when some robberies have been committed or some criminals are on the run. Even to check driving licenses or road tax. But , beside the need to block off criminals on the run, roadblocks can certainly be held at other times.

After what we've read about the protest movements,riots and street violence in UK., especially the inability of the Police to stop the violence and destruction of public and private properties, we should be able to reexamine our erstwhile critical evaluation of our own Police force - the PDRM. Whatever allegations have been made against the Police so far, they ( the gallant police personnel) have kept our country safe and secure and our streets free from widespread violence. No, the city streets can never be completely crime-free for the criminals and would-be-criminals are an integral part of human society anywhere at all in the world. There can only be relative peace and security on the street.

The ability of the Police to solve complex and intriguing cases seem to improve as do the number and complexity of the crimes involved. The movies. internet and higher education had improved the methods used by criminals to pursue their villainous trade and the Police is often left one step behind. But the force seems to be catching up very quickly as more and more personnel with higher qualification are absorbed into the service. More and more it seems that the Police must recalculate its manpower need for beat-work, leg-work and brain-work with heavier emphasis on the last item.

One area of concern the Police must look into is its response time to a call for help or a report on some disturbance. The familiar story one often hears is that a call is made to report two people fighting on the street. The fight is over, the fighters have gone and the crowd has dispersed before the Police arrived to investigate. The caller can then get into trouble for making a prank call. Then again, a person who reports and accident or worse still a murder, or even make a complaint to the Police, can get into so much trouble
that it's not worth making the effort. Some say it's better to keep away when you see anything that looks like trouble or a criminal act. People reporting a trouble are often treated like criminals themselves.

Hopefully these are all matters of the past. Policemen on the street should be seen as friends and protector of the public, not someone to hold you up for anything you do that they don't like, or as in the case of the traffic police, to scare people. This will produce a public that would only abide by the laws and regulations when some policemen are around, not otherwise. There was a time when children were taught to be afraid of the policemen because they arrest people and chain their hands.

Well, let the Police show us a new way of controlling traffic and preventing crime this coming festive season. Don't let us have a spade of house-breaking again while people have gone back to their kampungs and miles of jam-ups because of roadblocks. One big question: how come fire crackers are freely lit and exploding away like machine guns in the the towns and cities without anyone being arrested while some boys having a fun time with fire crackers and' meriam buluh' in the villages are often held up
for violating the law? If some of them are injured because of the explosive, it's probably because they had to play in secret, away from the watchful eyes of older friends and relatives. There are no such injuries in the towns and city streets during CNY and Chap Goh Meh because adults are involved.

The Police may have to rethink about allowing fire crackers during festive season for it does provide a lot of excitement. As regards its danger, even a knife wrongly used can cut away your fingers or cause a severe injury, even murder. If fire crackers are banned, then we shouldn't have the volleys of explosion during Chinese festive season. I must say that even policemen enjoy watching the firing away of long strings of fire crackers hanging from some trees of beams during CNY.

Our society is becoming more and more sophisticated. Arresting kids for playing with firecrackers seem to be a bit silly. Let them deal with the danger themselves. I am sure the Police have other more important things to do this festive season and we salute them for their success in keeping us and the country safe.