P-hailing riders to help police fight crimes
PENAMPANG: Police are cooperating with p-hailing dispatchers or ‘riders’ to fight crimes in Sabah.
Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jauteh Dikun said through this collaboration, the Sabah police aims for more than 90 percent of riders to register in the Volunteer Smartphone Patrol (VSP) application to ensure the effectiveness of the programme.
“Similar to the RMP slogan which is ‘Polis dan Masyarakat, Berpisah Tiada’ (Police and the Community Inseparable), we want to involve food delivery companies to work together with the police in crime prevention and fighting crime in their areas.
“It is well known that riders work and move around many areas regardless of the time and their movements are able to help the police by providing information related to incidents that happen around them.
“If they witness an emergency such as a road accident, the rider can provide first aid according to their respective abilities,” he said after launching the Conferencing Point Pondok Polis Beverly Hill and Volunteer Smartphone Patrol (VSP) with food delivery companies on Thursday.
Jauteh said riders are also able to carry out the responsibility of thwarting criminal activities in an area.
“If they detect suspicious activities or criminal acts such as a housebreaking, these food delivery can sound their horns or do things that will attract attention which will prevent criminals from continuing or to commit a crime,” he said.
Jauteh said for now the registration process among food delivery is still going on and the police aim to involve all riders for this purpose.
“We encourage them (riders) to register voluntarily to further increase the level of safety in this state,” he said.
Present at the event were Sabah Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department head SAC Mohd Azhar Hamin, Penampang police chief Superintendent Sammy Newton, Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation chairman Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr) Goh Tian Chuan and Penampang District Officer Francis Chong.