JOHOR BARU, Oct 19 — The overall crime index in the country declined by 0.8 per cent in the first nine months of this year, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said the drop from 85,739 cases during the same period, last year was encouraging, the result of drastic measures taken by police and other enforcement agencies in combating crime.
While cases like organised crime and armed robbery had gone down, Ahmad Zahid who is also Home Minister, said other crimes like snatch theft were still rampant.
Therefore, he wants the root causes of the problem be exhaustively addressed so that such crime cases like snatch thefts could also be lessened.
"We cannot feel comfortable with this drop (in the crime index), but we should discuss the causes of these crimes, which in the opinion of the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF), can still be reduced," he told reporters after chairing a meeting with the MCPF, here, today. — Bernama
