Emergency powers + police = high crime by cops’ own maths

Crime was already on the rise and seemingly unstoppable while the Emergency Ordinance (EO) Act was in place, said DAP National Publicity secretary Tony Pua.

As such, he questioned the police rationale for blaming the repeal of the EO in 2011 as the sole cause of rising crime in the country, particularly in urban areas.

"Malaysian crime index was rising rapidly from 2003 to 2008. At its peak, the crime rate rose by 34 per cent from 2004 to 2007. During this period, the EO was readily available at the authorities' disposal and yet, crime was seemingly unstoppable," Pua noted.

He further questioned if the repeal of the EO had become the convenient whipping boy for the police to cover up the lack of professionalism and competence in solving crime cases as well as in preventing crime incidences.

"They have yet to present a shred of evidence that the recent spate of rising crime is due to hardened criminals released from the Simpang Renggam detention centre.  It does not appear that the police has caught anyone involved in the recent spate of armed robberies which could possibly point to the repeal of the EO as being the cause," Pua added.

He said that after the launch of the "Reducing Crime" National Key Result Area (NKRA) in 2009, the official crime index has dropped significantly, from 209,417 in 2009 to 157,891 in 2011, according to the government.

"This was attributed under the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) to greater allocation of resources to patrolling and fighting street crimes.

"The achievement if true, was never ever attributed by the police to the increased use of the EO to detain alleged criminals without trial," Pua said.

He added that while the accuracy of the police crime index was in question, the police themselves had presented that crime levels in 2012 was the lowest in a decade at 145,891 or a decline of 7.6% from 2011.

"Most tellingly, the decline of crime, according the police’s own statistics, was achieved despite the fact that the EO was repealed during the year," Pua summed up. - July 9, 2013.

Source - The Malaysian Insider