The Royal Malaysia Police has got its strategy wrong: Laws alone do not bring down crime rates

The Malaysian police appealed to parliament to reinstate preventive detention without trial laws, such as the Emergency Ordinance and the Prevention of Crime Act 1959, to reduce crimes. These laws were abolished in 2012 because they violate the rights of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and have been abused. Although the legal profession and civil society disagreed with their reinstatement, parliament amended the Prevention of Crime Act in 2013. This article shows that such laws alone have not been effective in crime prevention and that the crime rate declined between 2009 and 2012 because of the implementation of scientifically tested methods such as installing closed-circuit televisions, and the government’s mobilisation of the police to hot spots in order to meet the National Key Results Areas target of reducing crime. Lastly, the article stresses that effective crime prevention involves a judicious combination of both scientific research and strategy. The article believes that the concept of Total Defence mooted in 1986 by the Ministry of Defence should be revisited as a total strategy or comprehensive security strategy for the defence and security of the country.