Media statement by Pakatan Rakyat secretariat in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 23^rd August 2012:

Home Minister and Pemandu need to clarify allegation of crime data manipulation

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and PEMANDU CEO Datuk Seri Idris Jala should clarify the allegation of NKRA crime data manupulation as suggested in letter by a "Sumun Osram", who claims to be "a policeman who wish to remain anonymous", that was widely circulated in the online media yesterday.

The allegation is serious in nature as it casts doubts on the integrity of official statistics, and, by extension, the credibility of the Home Ministry, PEMANDU and PDRM.

The "Sumun Osram" letter alleged that there is a systemic attempt to "lower the crime statistics by shifting the index crime to the non-index crime. The shifting is done at the time the police report is lodged. The classification of the crime from index to non-index will be captured in the police reporting system as 'non-index' and thus not registering it as an index crime for the purposes of statistics.

Lowering the index crime will show that the particular crime is on the decline."

'Index crime' is defined as crime which is reported with sufficient regularity and with sufficient significance to be meaningful as an index to the crime situation. 'Non-index crime' on the other hand is considered as cases minor in nature and does not occur with such rampancy to warrant its inclusion into the crime statistics or as a benchmark to determine the crime situation.

The official crime statistics consist of only the index crime.

According to the "Sumun Osram" letter,"the crimes which were manipulated are:

(a) Robbery cases under the Penal Code are classified as index crime. This offence will be classified as non-index under section 382 of the Penal Code. Since, section 382 of the Penal Code is a non-index crime, therefore will not be reflected in the crime statistics.

(b) Burglary under section 457 of the Penal Code is an index crime. This offence will be classified as non-index under sections 452 or 453 of the Penal Code. Since, sections 452 and 453 of the Penal Code are non-index crime therefore will not be reflected in the crime statistics.

(c) Causing hurt under sections 324 and 326 are index crimes. These offences will be classified under section 148 of the Penal Code. Since, section 148 of the Penal Code is a non-index crime therefore will not be reflected in the crime statistics.

The letter alleged that "the under classification of the index crime to non-index crime runs into several thousand cases. Of course, by removing these cases from the crime statistics will reflect that the crime has gone down."

Pakatan Rakyat calls on Hishammuddin and Idris Jala to disclose the statistics of cases classified under sections 148, 382, 452 and 453 of the Penal Code since the implementation of the NKRA to date and the three years preceeding the implementation of NKRA to refute the allegation.

* Nurul Izzah Anwar, PKR MP for Lembah Pantai,
Dr. Hatta Ramli, PAS MP for Kuala Krai,
Liew Chin Tong, DAP MP for Bukit Bendera