Mr Peh Jin Kai

AT ABOUT 3am last Tuesday, a burglar alarm in Yangzheng Primary School was activated.

After it had rung for at least an hour, I called the neighbourhood police post.

The police arrived within 15 minutes and tried to get into the school, but the gates were locked.

Forty minutes later, someone arrived to unlock the gates. The police entered and took another 15 minutes to turn off the alarm.

It took almost 2.5 hours to restore quiet to the neighbourhood.

This incident raises two issues:

• Why was action not taken immediately?

• Is there a standard operating procedure for such situations?

If there had been a burglar in the school, the 40 minutes spent waiting for someone to unlock the gate would have been more than enough time for him to make off with his loot.

Perhaps the procedure to deal with such situations needs to be reviewed.

For more my paper stories click here.