THERE has been considerable debate on the level of cooperation required from the public in the war against crime and I refer also to the letter “We need to change tidak apa attitude” (The Star, Jan 8).

There has been a surge of implied suggestions that the public has to increase its level of cooperation, and that lack of it is the main cause for cases going unsolved. This is inaccurate.

The key to effective crime fighting is intelligence gathering, which is well emphasised in internal police procedures. It is very clear in the Police Act that the basic functions are “procurement of intelligence” and “apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders”, apart from three others which are all inter-related.

The essential ingredient of intelligence gathering here is source recruitment and its subsequent handling by police officers. Numerous techniques and skills in this aspect are expected of good and effective intelligence officers.

These techniques are acquired from years of experience in handling sources.

I was once told by an experienced Chief Police Officer that if you have the right intelligence you will pick up the right people and, slowly, you will have a sea of information pertaining to various kinds of criminals and their unholy activities.

No doubt public cooperation is also important but the police must never be crippled even if no one steps forward in a criminal case.

This is because the public at large do not want to get involved in high profile and serious cases, more out of fear of repercussions to their safety than anything else, especially those that involve violent crimes.

There are many ways sources are recruited and handled with tight procedures that do not wholly depend on voluntary public cooperation. These are, of course, police trade secrets that are best not ventilated here.

The CID and Special Branch have always taken pride in their network of intelligence and ready sources to solve cases swiftly and effectively so as to instil public confidence in the criminal justice system.

These, I believe, are the shortcomings now in solving cases and that is why the police seem to be unable to deliver swiftly on many cases.

Prevention alone is insufficient as there are always criminals out there who will commit crime if the window of opportunity opens.

A revamp and a more experienced approach in training and developing the relevant officers in intelligence gathering will be required to restore this aspect of police work if we are going to fight crime effectively and successfully.

G. SELVA,

Ipoh, Perak.

Source: The Star – January 10, 2008