Crime intelligence unit in the works

By V. Vasudevan and Sean Augustin, NST

MALAYSIA is developing a Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) to tackle criminal cases, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

“This is part of the long-term strategy to improve the capability of the police.

“We will also be increasing the number of policemen to investigate these cases,” he said in reply to a question from Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) on the number of murder cases solved nationwide.

Abu Seman said from January to August, 230 murder cases out of 385 had been solved.

He added that the standard set by Interpol in solving criminal cases was 20 per cent, while the percentage set by the Malaysian police was 40.

Last year, 392 of the 598 murder cases had been solved, while 446 of 654 cases were solved in 2008.

To a second question by Bung on the measures taken to curb serious crimes like murder and robbery, he said 4,725 volunteers from the Malaysian People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela), members of the General Operations Force and Department of Civil Defence had been deployed for patrol duties with policemen.

Replying to a question from Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad (BN-Kangar), he said Malaysia had a crime scene investigation team, under the police forensics laboratory set up in 2002 to probe cases which required sophisticated methods.

Radzi Sheikh wanted to know whether the police had the expertise as well as trained personnel in forensic science to deal with more complicated cases.

Abu Seman said the forensics laboratory was continuously sending its officers for courses, both at home and abroad.

To a supplementary question from Datuk Johari Abdul (PKR-Sungai Petani) on the possibility of deploying Rela volunteers in crime hot spots, he said the ministry was looking into ways of increasing their presence.