Fighting crime a two-way street
Police showing photofits of the suspects in Khairy Jamaludin’s house break-in recently.
All, including failed attempts, should and must be reported, if only to show the true state of the crime index in the country. Only then can the fight against crime be successful.
Leslie Andres, NST
In order to successfully bring down crime in the country, all sides need to work together
SO, the Royal Malaysian Police have been saying that the nation’s crime index has declined. That, invariably, drew a whole host of criticism from Malaysians, who are convinced that crime in the country has increased, not decreased.
When Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaludin’s house was targeted by robbers, there were many who posted on Facebook and Twitter, predicting that police would act on the report lodged by the Umno man.
They also said in Khairy’s case, police could not say that crime was on the decline.
When photofits of the suspects were released, they again criticised the police, saying the only reason the force was being super efficient was because the victim was a VIP.
But one thing that people fail to realise is that crime statistics are just that: statistics.
What this means is that the crime index is merely the number of crimes that are known.
If a crime occurs and the victim lodges a police report, then the crime is counted in the index. It is as simple as that. If it goes unreported, then it does not get counted in the index.
If crimes do not get reported, then the crime index remains low. If less and less crimes are reported, then the crime index will show that crime is on the “decline”.
So, just how many crimes out there do not get reported? Nobody can tell you.
Could the number of crimes being committed in Malaysia actually be twice, thrice or even quadruple what the crime index says? Who can say?
There are many reasons why people do not report crimes.
One reason is that they cannot be bothered: it is a waste of time having to go to the police station and filling out the report. No telling how long it could take.
Another is that what was stolen or snatched was not valuable enough.
It could have just been a bag of dirty laundry being carried to the neighbourhood dobi, or a wallet filled with just a few ringgit.
Or, it could have been that the robbery/snatch theft was a failed attempt.
What is the use of reporting something that did not work for the robbers or snatch thieves, after all?
In the case of rape or abuse victims, a sense of shame can also play a part, with many deciding against reporting for fear that they will be ostracised by society because of what is obviously not their fault.
Then, there are those who ask: “What can the police do?”
These people either have little faith in the ability of our men and women in blue or cynically think that the cops are a lazy bunch, intent only on getting their money at the end of the month.
There are also those who believe that every member of the police force or at least, the vast majority, are corrupt. These people, for whatever reason they do not report crimes, are wrong.
All, including failed attempts, should and must be reported, if only to show the true state of the crime index in the country. Only then can the fight against crime be successful.
But success, as they say, is a two-way street.
How many of us have encountered policemen who dissuade us from lodging reports? Not the kind of policeman who actually say we should not lodge the report. Not many of those stories around.
No, the ones who seem to inadvertently dissuade us.
This would be the policeman who tells us things like “there is probably little hope of catching the culprits or getting back what was stolen from you” or “the culprits are probably long gone by now”.
To put it mildly, these kinds of statements do not inspire too much confidence in the force.
All it does is to make the victim think twice about lodging a report the next time a crime occurs.
In order to successfully bring down crime in the country, all sides need to work together. And the most important element in this equation has to be the rakyat themselves.
They need to be protected. Most definitely. In fact, it is incumbent upon the government and police force to protect them.
But the rakyat are also important, in that they need to do everything possible to protect themselves and other members of our society, and the least of these measures would be to report any and all crimes.
