MCO sees drop in Penang crime rate

MCO sees drop in Penang crime rate

State police chief says the number of crimes reported each day has dropped from a norm of 12 to about three to five.

Penang police say there has been a significant drop in indexed crime rate since the movement control order kicked in.
GEORGE TOWN:
Penang police chief Sahabudin Abd Manan says there has been a drop in crime rate in the state since the two-week movement control order (MCO) took effect on March 18, just a day after a similar drop was reported in Petaling Jaya.

Sahabudin said there had been a significant drop in indexed crime rate to an average of three to five cases per day.

The indexed crime rate takes 16 different crimes into consideration, including theft, murder, robbery, rape and extortion.

Speaking to FMT, he said there had been virtually no serious crimes reported in the state to date.

“Normally, we expect to have 12 cases daily in the state. The current numbers are very low compared to normal times,” he said.

Sahabudin said on March 18, there had been 14 cases; March 19, nine cases; March 20, five; March 21, eight and March 22, three.

He added that police are maintaining a close watch at the usual hotspots despite the dip in crime rate.

Yesterday, Petaling Jaya district police chief Nik Ezanee Mohd Faisal said crimes around Petaling Jaya had dropped by half in the five days of the MCO.

He estimated that the number of crimes had dropped by 40% to 50%.

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