By IAN MCINTYRE | Mar 12, 2010

Canine units to add bite in fighting crime

ianm@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: The police plan to deploy canine dog units (K-9) to patrol strategic urban areas in the country in a bid to reduce the crime rate while boosting the public’s confidence with a high level of security presence.

CID director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin said plans were under way to put the K-9 units on foot patrols together with their handlers and constables in crime-prone and strategic areas.

“They will be on crime preventive rounds similar to how it is done in other countries,” he said after opening the Sixth Forum on Crime and Policing at Universiti Sains Malaysia yesterday.

He also welcomed public feedback on the latest strategy to arrest the crime rate.

“We will work with our Finnish counterparts in improving the training for the K-9 units so the dogs will be more effective in combating crime,” he said.

He said some of the K-9 units were trained for specific operations, including sniffing out highly decomposed bodies in rough terrain.

Mohd Bakri also said that the police had entered the second phase of installing closed-circuit TV cameras at all district police headquarters.

“This is part of the force’s drive for transparency as the cameras will record activities in sensitive areas such as the interrogation rooms and lock-up areas, he said.

Asked about the monitoring of foreign students in both the public and private institutions of higher learning, Mohd Bakri said the police recently met with the Higher Education Ministry to find new ways to monitor and screen the arrival of international students, especially those who came from sensitive regions.

Earlier, Malaysian Crime Foundation Penang chairman Tan Sri Kamal Hashim said such forums would create greater understanding regarding the nature of criminal investigation.

He thanked multinational corporations such as Motorola and Jabil for co-sponsoring the forum with the foundation.