KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — The police’s Volunteer Smartphone Patrol (VSP) mobile app and its million-strong users have been credited with the drop in the nationwide crime index in 2018.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said a total of 88,662 cases were reported compared to a threshold value of 100,611 cases based on the crime index per 100,000 Malaysian population between January 1 and January 31, 2018.

"That is a decline of 11.9 per cent or 11,949 cases.

"Even better news is that all police contingents nationwide recorded a decrease in cases according to the threshold that was set for 2018,” he said during his monthly assembly speech at Bukit Aman here.

Mohamad Fuzi said the 1.2 million VSP members as of December 31 last year was one of the contributing factors in the decrease of the crime index nationwide.

"Since its launch on March 25, 2017, the response from the public has been encouraging and this proves that public awareness in crime prevention efforts is highly motivating.

"I hope that the number of users will exceed our target this year of 1.5 million after the numbers exceeded our initial target of a million,” he said.

He pointed out that 59,945 out of 60,552 complaints lodged through VSP have been addressed.

"A total of 49,187 complaints have been listed for immediate action, 10,874 under non-immediate action and the remaining 491 complaints pending action,” he said.

Later, during a press conference, Mohamad Fuzi explained that all 14 state contingents nationwide, including those that performed negatively in 2017, have recorded positive results in 2018.

"We will also emphasise the public perception of safety because it can still be improved and we are well aware of the unsatisfactory levels of safety perception.

"The crime index has been on the decline nationwide every year but the public perception still remains unchanged,” he said.

He said the police were in the midst of identifying an independent body to study the level of public perception of public security in the country.

"This is to prevent accusations from other parties claiming that the police deliberately manipulate or exaggerate the data,” he said.