Gombak, Serdang, Ampang suffer from worst perceptions of crime in Selangor

SHAH ALAM, Feb 13 — Gombak, Serdang, and Ampang were the three districts in Selangor with the worst perception of crime, while the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Sungai Buloh, and Hulu Selangor have the best, the police said today.

Despite that, the state as a whole had recorded a score of merely 37 per cent in the Perception of Crime Indicator (PCI), lower than the 54.9 per cent threshold set by the Inspector-General of Police last year.

The PCI results came from an online survey conducted to determine the perception of crime among the public, with higher scores indicating worse perception.

Despite that, the police did not provide individual scores for each district.

Selangor police chief Commissioner Datuk Pahlawan Mazlan Mansor said today the result was very encouraging and more policing efforts would be focused to bring down the PCI further this year.

“The results clearly show that perception of safety among members of the community has gone up and that fear of crime has gone down in the state.

“I am confident that if we continue to intensify our policing efforts, we would be be able to provide quality service by maintaining our current performance and do better in the future,” he said at a ceremony today.

The respondents for the survey included resident associations, business associations, schools, and community groups.

A total of 100,001 individuals were surveyed from September 5 until November 5 last year by Pemandu Associates in collaboration with each police station in the contingent that distributed the questionnaires to the four groups.

Of the total respondents queried, 69 per cent were male and 31 per cent female with 16 per cent of them past victims of crime.

Mazlan said the amount of respondents surpassed the initial target set of 81,708, an increase of 122 per cent.

“We must not rest on our laurels. We want all levels of personnel from the contingent to be agents of changes.

“They should seek first to understand than to be understood so that all our policing strategies can be enforced effectively,” he said.

The survey measured four components: social media influence and verbal transmission of crime incidents, physical observation of public lightings and abandoned buildings, police stations service and policing, and emergency response and assistance during crime.

Pemandu Associate senior vice -resident Abdul Mutalib Ishak said the survey was aimed at bridging the gap between crime index and public perception on crime.

“We received a whopping 61 per cent from our respondents during a 2016 PCI pilot study conducted in Kuala Lumpur contingent despite government announcing a crime index of 47 per cent between 2010 and 2016,” he said.

He said a PCI score over 70 per cent indicates fear while a score below 30 per cent indicates safety.

Abdul Mutalib said the government was planning to expand the survey to eight states this year on top of four participating states of Penang, Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan and Johor last year.