LET me come back to the much debated issue of crime, and reiterate what I said earlier: The crime rate is going down and we are making much headway in fighting crime at all levels, and especially street crime.

Under the second stage of our transformation programme, we will expand the front on this fight and we will address issues of public concern such as house break-ins and delay in investigation status to the complainant after making a police report.

We have made public all the figures. Really, we have nothing to hide. We have been as open and transparent as we can be. We are not blaming anyone but we realise that changing perception takes time and effort.

Let me give you some figures for index crime – crime which includes snatch thefts, robberies, vehicle thefts, rape, murder and others which comprise the crime index.

Throughout the country, there were nearly 210,000 crimes in 2009, dropping to below 160,000 in 2011, a reduction of about a quarter. On a daily basis, it went down from an average of 575 a day for the whole of 2009 to 416 daily from January to May this year, a drop of a very significant 28%.

If we talk just about street crime, that is snatch thefts and robberies without firearms which typically take place on the street, it dropped nearly 40% from 38,030 in 2009 to 22,929 in 2011. That’s still over 60 incidents a day throughout the country, mostly in urban areas.

There are two important points to note here. First, there has been a very significant and creditable drop in the crime rate. Second, there are still over 400 incidents of crime throughout Malaysia everyday, out of which over 60 are the very visible street crimes.

Expanding on the first point, there is no question of data massaging. We go by the reports made by the public as captured by the Police Reporting System and the figures are independently audited annually. I have heard the argument many times that reports are not made even when crimes are committed.

But if victims don’t report, there is little that we can do to help. We have made it clear that you are entitled to, even if you have to go through some trouble and effort to make the report you should do it – it is your civic duty. You must insist on lodging the report even if the police seem reluctant.

In any case, is it likely that more people are now not reporting crime? I think not. With much greater awareness of crime and citizens becoming more aware of their rights, more people than before should be reporting crime.

On to the second point – there are still over 400 crimes committed daily with more than 60 being street crimes. That means even before you finish reading this, three crimes would on average have been committed somewhere in Malaysia. And some will be violent and startling.

Once such a brazen act is committed, say in a public place such as a shopping complex car park, one can expect a great focus on crime for a while at least, especially when what we claim seems to be going against what is perceived anecdotally.

We are not blaming anybody, least of all the media because what is news must be reported. And we are certainly not justifying the crime. We must fight that with everything that we have and keep refining our methods to keep ahead of the criminals.

In fact, we are doing more to catch the perpetrators and are expanding our efforts to fight crime. Here are some examples. We have the “My Distress” smartphone application currently downloadable in Selangor (to be expanded to other states soon), whereby you can alert the police of a crime by pressing the alert button on the MyDistress interface on your phone. The police control centre will be able to locate your exact location through GPS and dispatch personnel there immediately.

Further under our Omnipresence Programme, we are deploying more police personnel together with members of the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) and Civil Defence Department (JPAM) on the streets at hotspot locations to interact with the people and make their presence felt. This also covers shopping complexes and schools.

Another example: We realise that one of the main complaints against the police is the difficulty in making reports and taking action. We are looking at an online system to tracking police investigation and further simplifying procedures for making police reports.

But news shapes perception and a preponderance of news on crime unfortunately gives the impression that crime has increased when it need not necessarily have. Like I said, there are over 400 crimes a day and it is easy to pick one or two to highlight every day.

We realise that we are also fighting a battle of perception here. In the United Kingdom, when attempts were made to fight crime, a similar situation was seen. By all indications, crime dropped but the perception of crime actually increased first before the gap started to narrow after that.

Now, according to an article in The Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/21556288), the situation has reversed. The crime rate in the United Kingdom is actually increasing but the public perception is that the rate is falling, which indicates again that perception tends to lag the actual situation on the ground.

Today, in Malaysia we have a gap between delivery and perception. The crime rate is falling but public perception is that it is actually increasing, especially for street crime where the drop has been most dramatic.

But we will press on ahead and our task will be to deliver first and foremost and then to match the delivery we make with public perception. That will take a while but we are patient and we are prepared to wait.

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