IGP again voices need to raise police housing allowance

He said the RM300 monthly housing allowance a police personnel gets is way below the rent of a house in the cities, and cited the example of a policeman who has to live in Sijangkang, Selangor, and ride a motorcycle daily to and from the Dang Wangi District Police headquarters where he works.

"I am not asking for a salary raise for the 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 about 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 said.

Abdul Hamid spoke to Bernama after the national 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.

The visit was to discuss, among others, cyber security, the role of the media in Malaysia and cooperation between Bernama and the Royal Malaysia Police.

Elaborating on the housing allowance issue, Abdul Hamid said police personnel are eligible for living quarters but the number of these units is not enough to go round.

Right now, about 10,000 personnel live in barracks while between 10,000 and 11,000 are forced to live in rented premises, he said.

"We need 20,000 units of police barracks to meet our needs. Some of the personnel live in rented premises, particularly in the Klang Valley," he said.

"I want to focus on building more barracks in the Klang Valley. The project has been approved. It (construction) is waiting to take off," he said, expressing relief that the allocation for the police in Budget 2021 had not been slashed.

Abdul Hamid said that if the welfare issue of the personnel is addressed, the problems of misconduct and corruption linked to the security forces can be eradicated.