Gating Up the Right Way

Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Gating Up the Right Way

Gated & Guarded communities to be stop gap measure to curb crime, says ADUN
ALL over Subang Jaya, USJ, Bandar Sunway and even Putra Heights, communities are taking steps to gate up and place security guards at the entrances to their neighbourhood.
This measure appears to be one of the best to take as a stop gap measure to keep criminals at bay.
ADUN Subang Jaya Hannah Yeoh who is advocating G&G as an interim measure to keep homes safe, says there is however a need to regulate G&G in the community.
“The relevant authorities and the police need to sit down and find a solution to fight crime. If you can’t protect the people, you should not stop them from protecting themselves.”
“G&G is a short term measure. I have spoken to Subang Jaya OCPD ACP Zainal Rashid on this and raised my concerns,” she said, adding that Zainal had asked for more time to relook security measures and the manpower needs of the district under his care.
Hannah was speaking to a crowd of almost 400 at the recent dialogue between residents of USJ11/4 who plan to get enough support from house owners in their area to gate up and place guards.
Chief Inspector Loi Yew Lik, the officer in charge of the USJ8 police station who was present said there were at least 300,000 residents in USJ alone compared to the 100 men he had to keep the area safe.
“This is a ratio of one policeman to 3,000 residents. International standards set it at one policeman to 300 residents to be effective. We are far off from this.”
“We are working round-the-clock and USJ is a big area. Places which are not gated are the targets of criminals,” he said.
Loi called on residents to work hand-in-hand with the police to fight crime.

Resident K. Balan who shared some insights into his own experience with criminals said, “Cooperation among residents is important to deter crime.”