KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — With immediate effect, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) has launched the National Urgent Response (NUR) Alert system to disseminate information on missing children to Facebook users.
Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the information relayed by PDRM would be sent to social media users via its ‘News Feed’, especially those within the area where the child was last seen, thanks to the police collaboration with Facebook.
He is confident the information could be channelled faster and effectively, via Facebook which was now PDRM’s 36th partner for the NUR Alert system.
“This is a more efficient way and it’s faster to disseminate information on missing children, considering there are 19 million registered Facebook users in the country,” he told a press conference after the system’s launching ceremony here today.
Also present were Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim and Facebook director (Trust and Safety) Emily Vacher.
Khalid said the NUR Alert on Facebook would cover crucial information on the missing child such as photo, location where he/she was last spotted and other details that could facilitate the search process.
Since PDRM took over the management system for missing children in the country in 2011, the IGP said 21 out of 29 children who were reportedly missing, had been found.
He said the police were still on the lookout for eight others.
“We are still searching for them...there is a possibility that family members have taken them out of the country and this makes the search more difficult,” he said.
The NUR Alert system was launched by the women, family and community development ministry in 2007, following the abduction of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.
PDRM is now working closely with 35 other partners under the system which involves various ministries, government agencies and non-governmental organisations to gather information and look for missing children. — Bernama
