Village adoption scheme launched
Published on: Sunday, February 17, 2019
KOTA KINABALU: Committed to tackling criminal activities, especially drugs, the Sabah Police Contingent “adopted” five villages from four different districts namely KK, Penampang, Papar and Tuaran under its Kampung Angkat programme.
State Police Commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah said when launching the programme that it was the first in Malaysia.
ADVERTISEMENT He said this initiative is as a step closer to reducing and eliminating criminal activities in villages through a different approach.
“Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal recently in a meeting urged us (police) to collaborate with the village community in crime prevention. This programme is an initiative by the Sabah Contingent Police and I believe it is the first such programme launched in Malaysia. We choose the villages based on several criteria,” he told reporters after appointing the Adopted Villages and Adopted Village Liaison Officers (Peka), here, Saturday.
Also present were State Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Zaini Jass and Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (Sabah) Chairperson Tan Sri Andrew Liew Siew Fatt, among others.
For the appointments, Omar said four districts were chosen where five villages were adopted from each district as an approach to create information networking between the police and village folks.
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He also said police officers who will be the liaison officers between the force and the local community are of at least sergeant rank.
“These officers will visit at their respective villages at least once a week to meet with heads to exchange information in case there are any. The officers will also give recommendations on ways to overcome any criminal activities as well as drug activities. Any information received by the officers will also be channelled to the respective District Police Chiefs and in case further action needs to be taken or an operation, then the police chiefs will plan the following action,” he added.
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Omar also hopes that this approach would form good cooperation between the police and village folks in their objective of cleaning up each villages of criminal activities. It would be expanded to all districts in Sabah within this year.
Earlier, Omar presented Appointment Certificates to each villages chiefs from four districts comprising, Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Tuaran and Papar along with its respective liaison officers. - Jeremy S Zabala