By Simon Peter
KUCHING, July 14, 2024 - Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan asserted today that the move to close the front gates of police stations after 10pm gives a wrong impression among the public that such premises are not a safe place.
He said instead of closing the gates, police should placed sentries and do proper checking or inspection of people coming in and out of the police stations.
“We could see there are guard houses at the gates of the police stations, but, if there are no sentries at the guard house or if sentries are not doing their job at the guard house, police should take the blame themselves if police stations are attacked by undesirable elements,”he said when responding to a statement from the federal police headquarters for all police stations nation-wide to close their gates after 10pm.
Voon, who is a former police officer, said closing the gates will cause inconvenience to public seeking help in times of distress or when there is an emergency.
“If police are not confident in ensuring their own safety and security inside their own police stations, then, how could police expect to command confidence of the public that they are able to keep peace and ensure public security in the country?” he asked.
He added the order to close gates did not receive favourable feedback from members of the public. “The impression is that, this is peace time, but police seem not able to take care of their own safety and security even inside of police stations and how could police able to ensure public security in public places?” he asked.
He said that the police stations are considered the safest place and there is no reason people dare to attack police stations if policemen, who being trained in handing security matters, maintained discipline in their job.
“We could see policemen were all armed even inside the police stations itself. In fact, arms carried inside the police station could already scare people to go into police stations to seek help,” he stressed.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Hussain had explained that closing of the front gates of police stations after 10pm nationwide would be fully implemented once the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the directive is completed by the Bukit Aman Management Department.
He added the SOP for the directive will be presented by Bukit Aman management director Comm Datuk Seri Azmi Abu Kassim before it is implemented in stages at police stations, especially those in the outskirts and rural areas.
"For now, the directive is implemented at certain police stations in the outskirts and rural areas following the attack on the Ulu Tiram police station on May 17.
He had said closing the front gates of police stations did not mean they are not operational, saying that the service delivery to the public would be a priority.
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