Police to up patrols in city
Published on: Saturday, March 27, 2021
By: Sidney Skinner
This part of Jalan Gaya feels a lot safer now that it is properly illuminated.
POLICE patrols will be increased in some parts of the City to discourage any unsavoury characters at these locations from unduly troubling the public.A Police Department spokesman said beggars would be among those individuals which its personnel would be on the lookout for.
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“We will step up our surveillance to give the police an omnipresence in the State Capital,” he said.
“In the past, we have worked with City Hall’s Enforcement Officers to safe guard Kota Kinabalu and will continue to do so.”
He was responding to a Papar motorist’s observation about the lack of a police presence in the city.
The individual felt it was important for the Department’s officers to seen in those areas which were frequented by many of the public.
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She hoped that this might discourage unscrupulous elements from carrying out their misdeeds.
The driver claimed to have been accosted by an adult male beggar when she went into Kota Kinabalu on a weekday night.
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She provided Hotline with the location where this transpired, as well as the time and date of the incident.
This information was forwarded to the Department and City Hall.
The spokesman said the police would try to make more rounds of the area where the beggar was seen.
“The public should lodge a report about any troubling encounters they have with vagrants so that further action can be taken on these matters.”
A City Hall spokeswoman said the authority was involved in a joint exercise to tackle beggar-related problems in the State Capital.
“Any vagrants, caught by our Enforcement personnel, are handed over to the Police, as well as Immigration and Welfare officers, for further action,” she said.
She said City Hall served in a secondary capacity when it came dealing with beggars.
“We are only an ‘agensi bantuan’ (assistive agency) which facilitates efforts by the Police, as well as the Welfare and Immigration Departments,” she said.
NELLA of Papar spoke out about an unnerving experience she had in the City, around 8pm, on a recent Monday.
She had taken a friend for dinner at a restaurant on Jalan Gaya.
The driver was shocked to find a beggar beside her car-door, after she had managed to get her vehicle into a parking lot, off the stretch.
“Thankfully, I hadn’t unlocked my car because he was just standing there with one of his hands outstretched,” she said.
“I shook my head several times but he refused to go away. At one point, he rapped aggressively on my window.”
She said her friend, who was beside her inside the car, noticed that the beggar had one hand behind his back.
“My companion feared that the vagrant might be concealing a knife and asked me to park somewhere else.”
Erring on the side of caution, Nella left the area and managed to find an empty space closer to the eatery.
“We were still talking about the beggar while waiting for our meal to arrive.
“I had noticed that his hair was a mess and, because he was so persistent, I wondered whether he might be of unsound mind.
“My friend remarked about how dark the place, where we had parked earlier, had been.”
Nella suspected that many of the streetlights on that side of the road might have been out of order.
“If the sign for the ‘mamak’ shop across the road had not been lit-up so brightly, our parking lot would have been pitch black.”
She said her companion pointed out that closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) had apparently been put up at certain points in the City.
“My friend wondered if the CCTVs in the area had been operational and, if so, whether the lack of illumination had affected the clarity of any footage captured of the parking space.”
Nella hoped the local authorities would be more mindful of any the irregularities involving the streetlights and CCTVs along Jalan Gaya. “They should make regular checks to ensure that these facilities are working properly.
“It is important to do this as it will give the public a greater sense of security, should they have to come to this part of the City at night.”
A spokesman for the City Hall’s Engineering Department said, shortly after learning of the driver’s concerns, an inspection was made of the streetlights along Jalan Pantai, Jalan Kota Kinabalu Lama and Jalan Gaya.
He said the contractor, tasked with maintaining these facilities, attended to any lights which were inoperative.
“In all, there are about 116 lights on these three roads,” he said.
“They were put up under the ‘Program Bandar Selamat (Safe City Programme)’ in 2012.”
He said the contractor found that the lights above the parking area, where the motorist encountered the beggar, had been rendered out of order due to a short circuit.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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