KUALA LUMPUR - OFFICERS equipped with hand-held computers, micro cameras fitted into walkie-talkies and greater use of forensic tools - these will be part of a massive plan to beef up Malaysia's police force.
Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan says the force wants to use high-tech devices and set up a network of camera surveillance to fight rising crime in the country.
'The Bukit Aman control centre will use the latest high-tech devices and communication systems to relay, monitor and coordinate operations throughout the country,' he said in an interview with The Star on Monday.
The project, costing several billion ringgit, is expected to take off by the end of the year.
Under the project, the Bukit Aman control centre would be able to communicate and monitor operations not only on land but also from 'surface to air or surface to sea', Tan Sri Musa said.
Police helicopters would be fitted with sophisticated surveillance cameras that can feed images, even those taken at sea, to the control centre for tracking purposes.
Tan Sri Musa said: 'We need an e-solution system that will enable us to communicate with our police helicopters, airplanes and marine police as well as with our mobile police vehicles, traffic policemen in patrol cars and on motorcycles.'
Even constables would be equipped with hand-held computers, and micro cameras would be fitted in their walkie-talkies for monitoring purposes, he said.
'Police patrol cars will be fitted with mobile personal computers that will enable policemen to check and verify the status of a person as well as that of a vehicle on the spot instead of having to bring them to the police station and inconvenience them,' the police chief added.
It is learnt that the Malaysian government has looked into buying such a system after witnessing its impressive capability during a recent demonstration of its use in developed countries.
Tan Sri Musa said the upgrading would pave the way for what he termed 'Malaysia's Future Cops'.
He added: 'The only difference is that it is not too far away.'
The massive project, he said, would see every department in the police force going high-tech, including the forensics department.
He said the forensics department needed to be better equipped as crimes were getting very sophisticated.
Citing the recent high-profile case of murdered girl Nurin Jazlin as an example, Tan Sri Musa said a police officer was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States to seek help just to enhance the clarity of an image captured by a Web camera.
'If we had the equipment here, we would be able to investigate faster.
'We must be one step ahead of the crooks at all times,' he said.
He added that the FBI had agreed to help conduct courses, and 60 officers from Malaysia's CID and the Commercial Crimes and Narcotics Crimes Investigations departments have been selected to attend the training.
