PENANG, 15 August 2015 – As an outcome of a research collaboration between Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) researchers with the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), the public in the state of Perak would benefit from an innovative Community Crime Prevention System (CCPS) project which enables them to be the first in receiving information concerning crimes directly from PDRM and to take precautionary measures to avoid from becoming victims, especially to street crimes.

Head of Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department, PDRM Perak Contingent, SAC Selvam A/L Tharmalingam said, this initiative was aimed at bringing the public closer to the police force and also to provide the public with information on relevant crimes.

"With this system, a screen would be installed to provide information on street crimes to the public. This is to raise the awareness of the public on crimes in Perak, other than functioning as a platform for cooperation between the public and the police force, which allows the public to forward any information to the police force in efforts to reduce the crime rates," he added.

Selvam added, this cooperation is another commendable effort done between USM and PDRM towards crime reduction, which is part of the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS).

Meanwhile, the Director of the Centre for Research Initiative: Liberal Arts and Social Sciences USM, Professor Dr Ruslan Rainis said, crime prevention should involve the community and information from the public is truly essential in order to put an end to crime.

"USM is the only university in Malaysia to focus on research in relation to crimes and to implement a pioneering project with a grant allocation of approximately RM1 million, for 11 research projects concerning juvenile criminal acts comprising various aspects, to be conducted within 2 years," he said at the media conference after officiating a workshop entitled "Community Crime Prevention System" at the Dewan Persidangan Utama (DPU) USM here yesterday.

Ruslan further added, as this was a pioneering project, this one day workshop was held to provide an overview of the system and share the idea with the Perak district Heads of Police prior to its launch by the PDRM, planned for next month.

“From this workshop too, we hope to gather valuable feedback from the relevant parties as we plan to implement this project in the states of Kedah and Penang in the future.”

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Text: Marziana Mohamed Alias & Syuhada Abd Aziz/Photo: Mohd Fairus Md Isa

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