KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — Malaysia’s police force has a tough time combatting criminals because the force is under-funded and lacks “modern” gear like close-circuit televisions (CCTVs), Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The home minister hit out at detractors who blamed the police for being inefficient in carrying out their duties, saying the critics failed to realise the police force was poorly-equipped compared to the criminals they were pursuing.

‎”We need assets that are equal to those modern ones used by the criminals to outsmart them,” Zahid said in his speech at the RMP Training College in Cheras here.

“Do they know that 90 per cent of police patrol cars have been in use for over eight years and still not replaced?” he added.

He said the lack of CCTVs hampered surveillance efforts.

“Do we have enough CCTVS? We don’t want to be a police country, but we want to have a modernised police force,” he said.

Zahid then defended the police against accusations that they were suffering from “denial syndrome”, and explained that the law enforcement agency could not reveal its equipment shortcomings as it would exacerbate the problem.

“Be fair to us please,” Zahid pleaded to loud applause from the floor.

In a press conference later, Zahid urged the Finance Ministry to consider his requests that he said were made purely in the interest of the public security.

He did not reply, however, when asked as to how much more the police were seeking in addition to what they were allocated in Budget 2015.

During the tabling of Budget 2015 in October, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced an allocation of RM9.1 billion for the police force, and pledged to also recruit an additional 11,757 police personnel as well as construct 14 police headquarters and police stations.

Najib also announced a RM121-million allocation for the force to implement programmes under Putrajaya’s National Key Results Area for crime reduction in the country, as well as the purchase of 1,000 motorcycles for police patrol.