MELAKA – The Crime Prevention and Home Safety campaign has been seen as an effective method in raising awareness among the people in Melaka to look after their own safety, as well as their property, when leaving home to return to their hometown during the holiday season.
Melaka police chief, Datuk Zainol Samah said the campaign, which includes filling out a ‘balik kampung’ form, has enabled the police to patrol the neighbourhood and keep a lookout on their property when they are away.
“For example, throughout the study period of filling in the balik kampung form in the last five years, it shows that there were no cases of housebreaking during the Chinese New Year festival season in Central Melaka district.
“It includes the use of the Volunteer Smartphone Patrol (VSP) application to report the movement of residents and, based on the study, there were no cases of burglary of participating houses or premises last year, when a total of 1,037 users were using the apps, either during the festive season or away for a long time,” he said at Jonker Walk here last night.
Earlier, he launched the Crime Prevention and Home Safety Campaign in conjunction with the Chinese New Year 2023 celebration, which was also attended by the state deputy police chief, Datuk Razali Abu Samah and Jonker Walk Committee chairman, Datuk Gan Tian Loo.
Zainol said community cooperation is very important to implement maximum crime prevention measures.
“Therefore, we hope that those who return to their villages can make sure that their houses are secured, by installing additional security devices such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera, padlocks and closing any space that criminals can enter.
“The public is also urged to always be observant of their neighbourhood if there is a presence of vehicles or people behaving suspiciously. They can report to the police on the MERS 999 line,” he said. – Bernama
