Sabah’s nearly 4m population makes it No 2
Published on: Sunday, March 17, 2019
KOTA KINABALU: Statistics Department firgures show Sabah has the second highest population in Malaysia after Selangor at 3.9 million in 2017. In the city alone, there are 553,900 people, 51.5pc male and 48.5pc female.
Apart from being an administrative centre, Kota Kinabalu is now a major tourist destination. Based on reports from the Sabah Tourism Board, the number of tourist arrivals to Sabah reached 3.7 million in 2018.
ADVERTISEMENT
Aware of this development, the Kota Kinabalu City Police Headquarters took a proactive step by introducing the motto, “Keselamatan dan Kesejahteraan Keutamaan Kami” (Safety and Prosperity Our Priority). It is the first police headquarters in Malaysia that is optimistic to make its city the safest to visit and live in.
Its Chief ACP Habibi Majinji, who attended the Police Volunteer Reserve (PVR) corps’ recent family day, explained that the force has opted to optimise its strengths in preventative and criminal justice in the State capital.
“Our motto, Safety and Prosperity Our Priority, takes its form from the name of the city, which is a word beginning with the letter K. Our mission is to realise Kota Kinabalu as the safest city to visit and live in,” said Habibi.
“For that purpose, we mobilise all elements in the field to ensure the highest safety. The elements include periodic patrols by our patrol car (MPV) and motorcycle (URB) units in residential and industrial areas.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Another feature of our police headquarters is bicycle patrols in public parks by the PVR team, so our members are omnipresent in the focused location.”
At the city police headquarters level, the PVR team is under the administration of the Head of Crime Prevention and Community Safety Division, DSP Kalsom Idris. Habibi said the PVR’s involvement in criminal prevention assignments greatly helps city police in terms of increasing the strength of the teams.
ADVERTISEMENT
“PVRs usually assist in assignments such as public order, traffic control and crime prevention operations that require a lot of strength. Their role is the same as that of regular police but they have power only when assigned by city police headquarters such as inspections and arrests. Without assignments, they cannot carry out police work,” he said.
“In the context of our motto, PVR is also included in the safety elements with regular members as front liners. So far, we have a PVR bike patrol team with regular members at the Likas Public Park. Thankfully, we managed to reduce the crime rate and receive a positive response from the public.”
According to Sabah PVR Commander Supt Paul Lajumin, PVR membership in Malaysia has now reached 20,000. In Sabah, a total of 2,636 members are stationed at police stations throughout Sabah supervised by a District Police Volunteer Head (KSPD).
At the city police headquarters level, the PVR team consists of 471 people led by KSPD chief ASP Ag Usli Mohd Salleh who is assisted by Insp.Noran Addy Sukiran and Insp. Mohd Fadli Izan Mat Min.
Ag Usli explained that the affairs of members were coordinated by seven police station administrators under city police headquarters’ administration. They are Sergeant Henry Titin (Kota Kinabalu Police Station), Corporal Al Jospeh Malibin (Alam Mesra Police Station), Corporal Terrence James (Inanam Police Station), Corporal Maidin Li (Menggatal Police Station) Corporal Mazlan Mutalib (Tanjung Aru Police Station) and Lance Corporal Rayner Stephen (Luyang Police Station).
Meanwhile, City Deputy Chief of Police Supt George Abd Rakman said the team was created in 1957 as a unit of manpower support.
“The main condition for joining the PVR team is one must have a job. In other aspects, they’re like regular members except there’s some physical and academic flexibility and so on to give the public an opportunity to get involved in a policing career while contributing to the nation without abandoning their job,” he said.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
