BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Commissioner of the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) yesterday called for the local community to work closely with the police in areas such as combatting crime.

“We need the community because with the number of police standing at around 5,000, it is not enough to cover the whole country the whole year round,” Dato Paduka Seri Bahrin Md Noor told reporters on the sidelines of the RBPF Public Relations Unit Hari Raya Open House.

He said he hoped the community and the police will work hand in hand to enhance cooperation in the future.

The police commissioner said they are in the process of recruiting more personnel, but within a year, the number of police personnel retiring are almost the same as the numbers being recruited.

“Even if we have 10,000 police personnel, we still need the cooperation of the community to help us,” he said.

Since the beginning of the year, he said the RBPF has been improving and revising the old neighbourhood watch programme by recruiting newer members and being more focused.

“Right now, we are not so worried about the numbers of those in neighbourhood watch, but are focused on the programme such as how to (raise awareness so that more people would) engage in the programme,” he said.

The police commissioner said he hoped the general public will familiarise themselves with ways to prevent crime.

He also hoped that the community will work with the police to devise ways the neighbourhood watch programme can cater to their needs.

“For example... in a flat, residents can sit together and formulate a programme. They can form a group and create a WhatsApp group chat to watch out for each other when they leave the flat,” he said.

In a previous report in March, Acting Head RBPF Public Relations Unit ASP Hj Mohd Noor Hj Abd Rahman, during a presentation of the achievements of the watch, assured village heads that the police would work towards providing updated crime statistics to village heads at least once a month.

This should see neighbourhood watch committees take more initiative in planning activities with police counterparts, leading to actions such as increased patrols.

Also present at yesterday’s gathering were members of the public relations unit, senior personnel within the police force and members of various media agencies.

The Brunei Times