GEORGE TOWN: Penang police are hot on the heels of some 2,000 people on its wanted list who have yet to be detained for their alleged involvement in various types of crimes committed in the state in the last few years.
State police chief Datuk Seri A. Thaiveegan said there were about 100 people on its wanted list for criminal offences, 900 people for commercial crime offences and close to 1,000 people for narcotics offences.
“I want all the men in blue not to waste their time on worthless efforts but focus on solving these cases … track them down and arrest them.
“The victims of these criminal acts are seeking justice and it is up to us to uphold it. The people are worried over robbery and burglary cases, we must act fast to lend a hand to them whenever needed,” he said at the monthly police assembly at the state police contingent headquarters here this morning.
Speaking to the NSTP later, Thaiveegan said the state would be implementing a facial identification system in order to assist the police to track down criminals.
Elaborating, he said the system would be able to identify the lawbreakers once they step foot into the state using cameras installed.
He, however, said it would take several years before the system could be implemented.
“For now, it is at the discussion stage with various parties. It involves finances, logistics and also manpower to make it happen.
“But, in the meantime, we will focus on looking out for them in our wanted list. They committed the crime here but could be anywhere. So we will continuously be on the lookout,” he added.
Meanwhile, Thaiveegan said that the crime rate had dropped 10.3 per cent from 4,201 cases between Jan 1 and Sept 30 last year to 3,767 cases during the same period for this year.
For commercial crime, the rate had dropped by nine per cent, while for violent crime rate, dropped by 15.9 per cent.
In the first nine months of this year, Penang police had detained 8,454 people involved in drug-related offences with seizures amounting to RM190.6 million.