More confident of police role in ensuring safety

Brickfields deputy police chief Superintendent Aida Abdul Hamid meeting residents of a housing area for feedback on crime-related issues.                                       

2011/08/23: TNS Research International has found through its survey that the index for fear of crime among Malaysians has improved.

The market survey company saw a decrease in fear of vehicle crime, although further containment was seen as needed against robberies, burglaries and other violent crimes. 

                                                                 

"Malaysians'    fear    of    crime    index   has   improved  from 52  per cent (November  last year  to January)  to  48.9  per  cent   (March  to May).

"The survey saw a decrease in all categories, especially vehicle-related crimes (from 53.8 per cent in January to 49.2 in May," it said.

It further revealed that women were consistently more concerned about crime compared with men (60.3 per cent against 38.3 per cent).

"Among Indians and Chinese, the fear of crime dropped to 49.2 per cent and 37.5 per cent respectively. Malays and other Bumiputeras, however, are still concerned about becoming victims to robberies and burglaries, although their fear level decreased in vehicle and violent crimes," it said.

The survey also found that urbanites were less worried about crime compared with rural folk (48.7 per cent against 50.9 per cent).

Pemandu had commissioned TNS Research International to conduct the survey in December 2009, and it had monitor the trend every four months.

The survey was conducted with a sample size of 1,212 respondents aged 18 years and above who were randomly picked proportionately according to state distribution.

The method used was face-to-face interviews.

TNS Research International Malaysia chairman John Smurthwaite said police efforts in reducing the fear of being a victim of crime had seen improvement and registered more favourable responses from the people.

"It is good to see improvements and continuous reduction in fear of crime over the past year."

Pemandu's Crime National Key Results Area (NKRA) director, Eugene Teh, commended the police for executing and implementing the various initiatives spelt out under the Crime NKRA of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

"The continuous decrease in the overall level of fear of becoming a victim of crime shows that we are on the right track in ensuring that the people feel safer. But we will not rest on our laurels. We will take note of areas that can be improved."