Security Forum at TTDI

On 14 Jan 2009, my neighbourhood organised a Dialogue with the local Police on neigbourhood security. I found out about it thanks to the TTDI group on Facebook.

That evening, a few of us attended a BEC meeting, then adjourned to the Dialogue. We were surprised to see a table laden with not just snacks, but solid food like rice, fried chicken and etc. I wondered if the point of that was to get people into a good mood so that they wouldn't blast the organizers too much on neighbourhood issues.

The talk was supposed to start at 9pm, but it got off a little late. Normal-lah. Up on the podium was the moderator, the Head of the Residents' Association, a Police guy, and the Boss of the security company which was been contracted to provide guards in the TTDI residential area. The moderator began his introductions, saying that the session would last till 11.00pm. What the...? It was Thursday the next day, and there were many working people present, in case he didn't notice. Anyway, he started a formal greeting of each supposed VIP present. He went on... and on... and on....

15 minutes later...

He finally finished the bloody greetings. By this time, a few people were already nodding off. You'd think he'd finally start talking about how bad crime is in TTDI right? Wrong! He started telling us what we SHOULDN'T be talking about, i.e. don't turn it into a police-bashing session on a national level. This hogwash took a further 15 minutes. If that wasn't the longest introduction in history, I'll be damned.

Next, it was time for the Residents' Association head to speak. I think he must have been dozing too, because he spoke in super-slow motion. Just like our favourite politicians on TV! I've no idea what he said, because by this time, a few people in the audience, myself included, were getting edgy. I was really annoyed because it was already 10pm and the issues at hand hadn't even been hinted at yet.

After that, the police dude spoke as well. I tuned out when he pledged that he would even stay till 3.00 in the morning if that's what it took to make us happy. No thanks. Everyone was there to listen to a solution, not linger on the fricking problem.

The speech that took the cake was from the boss of the security company. His entire 20-minute speech consisted of telling us what he Could Not Do. The bottom line of that tale was that not enough residents had signed up and paid for the security-patrol programme, so it was impossible to put up more guards or have 24-hour patrolling. He also complained that the security service couldn't be carried out properly because everyone was waiting for their neighbours to pay and sign up first, evaluate the results and only then make a commitment of RM40 per month to the security company. Ever heard of a 30-day trial, retard?

Finally, it was time for the residents to speak. A lady who seemed to be as annoyed as I was jumped up to the mic and started blasting the security company dude with facts and figures, trying to negotiate for a particular area to have 24-hour security. I was quite shocked when the security guy's only defence was to blame the residents for quitting the service in large numbers. Just a tad money-minded, no?

The police guy later started telling us that security is our collective responsibility and that if a crime occurs, we should get details which are useful to cops e.g. description of criminal, getaway vehicle and so on.

A spirited lady came up and started blasting the cop, saying that a neighbour of hers, Mr. Rajendran had been slashed and robbed by men with parangs. Although there were witnesses, everyone was too afraid to come out and help. She wanted to know how, in that case, were we expected to 'play our part' when everyone was shitting their pants.

When I first walked into the Dialogue place, I told myself I would just sit quietly and be an observer. But the crap from the long-as speeches had really riled me up, so I wrote a few things which were Related to the Topic i.e.

What Can We Do to Secure Our Homes?
I went up to the mic and asked the residents "How many people here have been robbed? Raise your hand."
So a few people raised their hands. I raised mine too. Then I said "If you've been robbed more than once, raise both hands."
Since I've been robbed twice, I raised both my hands. I told the audience that my house was burgled twice in the space of 3 weeks. That got a few gasps.

I told them that I had a Commendation and a Critique for the police. I said that both times I was robbed, the police came within 10 minutes of our call. Then I said that when the police came to take our statement, they said that there was no point paying the security guards, because they weren't effective. I got quite a few grunts of agreement to that.

My critique came next. I told the audience that it was very difficult to give evidence of the crime to the police. When the second robbery occured, we had video footage of the thief AND a willing witness. I told the crowd that the witness had never been interviewed and that I had to personally go to the police station to give the evidence to the police because the Investigating Officers on our case were very difficult to contact, even though they gave us their mobile numbers.

Then I gave them my suggestions to keep their homes safe:

1. Manage our maids. They're helpful in the home but we don't know which construction workers they're talking to when we're away at work, possibly giving them information about our homes and belongings. This is something the Police guy mentioned too.
   
2. Is it legal to print and put up photos of the thieves in the TTDI area for public viewing?
3. Place information on robberies on Facebook and on the Residents' Association website so that everyone is aware of what's going on.
4. Install an alarm system for the house.
5. Add wooden beams to your roof to minimize the space between beams so that a person can't pass through. Indonesians, who are roofing experts, are notorious for gaining entry to homes via the roof. They first remove a few tiles, exposing the beams and ta-daa! A gaping hole to your home.
   

While I was speaking concisely and briefly, the moderator had the cheek to interrupt me, asking me to speed up my comments as there were other people waiting their turn to talk. I ignored him, but I was bloody fuming. That was rich, coming from the 15-minute introduction man!

I didn't want to ruffle any feathers, so I just ignored it. When I was done and went to my seat, Police Guy comments "Wow, you got robbed twice?! I wonder what was in your house? Maybe it was you?"
What the heck was he implying?

Then he tells one of the other cops sitting around to come and get my details immediately so that they can investigate the case further. So a dude comes up to me to get my details and promises that someone will be in contact the next day. (To the credit of the police, they contacted us for information last week.)

Unfortunately, they seem to think that we're at home all hours of the day waiting with bated breath for them to come over and obtain the necessary information.

I'm not counting on my cases being solved, but I hope the Dialogue gave people ideas on keeping their homes safe.