Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has expressed grave concern over the three shooting incidents within a day in the state.

He said yesterday three separate shooting incidents on the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri in Penang may be related to criminal gangland rivalry, it indicates a "deteriorating crime situation that will place doubts on public safety".

The incidents resulted in the death of an Indian national, 37, along Jalan Anson and wounded an entertainment outlet bouncer, 43, early this morning in Jalan Dato' Keramat.

dap special meeting 110313 lim guan eng "This morning I called up the Penang Chief Police Officer, who is still in Penang. He briefed me on the situation and that the police are doing what they can to be on top of the situation," said Lim ( left ), in a statement.

He added that s the state government is committed to maintaining Penang's hard-earned record as one of the safest, if not the safest state in Malaysia.

He said that the state government understands the shortages of manpower and lack of resources Penang police in Penang may be facing face in fighting crime.

"For this reason, the state government is willing to lend our resources to the police to jointly combat escalating crime," said Lim.

Manpower-tech marriage

" penang superwomen rally 180312 voluntary patrol units Apart from establishing the Voluntary Patrol Teams (VPT) to conduct community policing on their own housing estates, flats and kampungs, the state government is actively installing CCTVs to marry manpower with technology," he added.

Lim said he has directed the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) and Seberang Perai Municpal Council( MPSP) to install an additional 70 CCTVs and 55 CCTVs respectively by the end of the year.

This is on top of the existing 60 CCTVs in MPPP and 44 CCTVs in MPSP, he noted, adding that Lim the additional 125 CCTVs will cost an extra RM3 million.

"To overcome the problem of insufficient number of police personnel to monitor the increased CCTVs round-the-clock, the state government has offered to employ at its own expense staff to do the monitoring," he said.

"This will allow uniformed personnel to perform their core duties of patrolling the streets to keep the public safe from crime," Lim added.

He said the most effective crime prevention is through community policing and cooperation.

Not only must the public offer information to the police, but they must also be willing to lodge police reports despite the inconvenience of doing so, he added.

Lim said this is necessary to ensure an accurate record of criminal incidents.