KUALA LUMPUR – Realising the financial burden on cops living in big cities, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador has once again asked the government to consider raising their housing allowance.
He said the current RM300 monthly allowance is far below the rental for a house, citing as an example an officer who has to live in Sijangkang, Selangor, and ride a motorcycle daily to work at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters here.
“I am not asking for a pay raise for police personnel, but for their housing allowance to be increased, because those who rent houses in the Klang Valley face a high cost of living... imagine those working in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
“My personnel who earn about RM2,500 a month will have RM1,500 after deducting expenses. What do they have left? That’s why they detain people and impose the sentence there and then... becoming ‘street magistrates’ (taking bribes),” he told Bernama after the news agency’s chairman Senator Ras Adiba Radzi, CEO Datuk Mokhtar Hussain and editor-in-chief Abdul Rahman Ahmad paid a courtesy call on him at Bukit Aman here.
Hamid said police are eligible for living quarters, but there are not enough units for all.
About 10,000 personnel live in barracks, while between 10,000 and 11,000 rent their homes, he said.
“We need 20,000 police barracks to meet our needs. Some personnel live in rented units, particularly in the Klang Valley.
“I want to focus on building more barracks in the Klang Valley. The project has been approved. It (construction) is waiting to begin,” he said, expressing relief that the allocation for police has not been slashed in Budget 2021.
If police’s welfare is taken care of, he said, misconduct and corruption can be eradicated within the force. – Bernama, December 9, 2020
