KLANG: As many people in urban areas return to their hometowns for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, their homes will be left vacant, making them attractive targets for burglars.
With that in mind, members of the public are advised to inform the nearest police station before travelling outstation for the festive holidays so that their homes can be monitored while they are away.
South Klang OCPD Asst Comm Cha Hoong Fong said they can manually fill in the "balik kampung" forms available at the nearest police stations or register their information online via the Volunteer Smartphone Patrol (VSP) mobile application.
“Our advice to all house owners is to make an effort to alert the authorities to prioritise patrols. In doing so, it will make the task of the mobile patrol vehicle team easier in distributing manpower and sending patrol teams to areas where house owners have gone back to their hometowns,” ACP Cha said after attending a breaking-of-fast programme with South Klang police frontliners at GM Klang wholesale mall in Bandar Botanic.
More than 40 police personnel, together with ACP Cha, Deputy Supt Jodie Yap Siew Wen and Insp Noorulainah Abd Kadir went on a walkabout at the Ramadan bazaar in the mall's open-air carpark in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.
They also distributed balik kampung forms to the shoppers.
VSP, introduced in March 2017, is a mobile app based on the police’s older system, Rakan Cop, which was SMS-based.
People can use this application to report crime activities or incidents in the form of photos or videos straight to the police.
ACP Cha added that with this app, the public can keep the police informed that they will be away for the festive period or report any criminal activities they witness on their closed-circuit television cameras, complete with photos and videos.
“Members of the public need to register as a VSP member first before starting to share information and they can use pseudonyms so as not to reveal their identity,” he said.
