Police to beef up strength

(Bernama) – KUALA LUMPUR: The police force plans to increase its personnel strength from 122,000 to 150,000 by 2015 to meet the growing needs of the community and rapid development of the country.

Bukit Aman Director of Management Datuk Robiah Abdul Ghani said the need to beef up strength was prompted by the changing landscape of the country, which demanded an effective and efficient police force.

“More police personnel are needed due to the increase in population and to cater for the development process,” she told reporters in conjunction with the 204th Police Day to be celebrated Friday.

She said that as such the police had opened its doors to ex-servicemen who were keen to join the force, and had recruited 100 ex-servicemen since January.

“They are under 45 years of age and have served the armed forces for at least 10 years, and are now undergoing training at the Police Training Centre in Kuala Kubu Baru for three months,” she said.

Robiah said that since the ex-servicemen had acquired certain skills, they were put through their paces for only three months instead of between six and nine months like the other trainees.

“Upon completion of the training stint, the ex-servicemen will be stationed at police stations and given tasks according to the suitability of their job scope and skills,” she said.

Robiah said the police training facilities were being reviewed to cope with the plan to increase the manpower.

She said the police also collaborated with the armed forces through smart partnership in terms of usage of premises for basic training of police officers and men.

“We have utilised a number of armed forces’ premises, including the Army Basic Training Centre in Port Dickson to train new police recruits. Through this cooperation, more policemen can be trained during each recruitment exercise,” she said. – Bernama