The government will upgrade police lock-ups nationwide with short and long term plans that are better designed to prevent breakouts, Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar said today.

The short-term plan will include a check of building specifications for all police stations, as well as all district and state police headquarters with lock-up facilities. A long-term move would be to build central lock-ups that can house up to 300 detainees.

He named the Bayan Baru (in Penang), Jinjang, Shah Alam and Dang Wangi (all in the Klang Valley) police stations as suitable for conversion to central lock-ups (to serve a number of surrounding police stations).

Police chiefs have been told to conduct a thorough check of the facilities and to report on the improvements required, he told reporters after visiting the Puchong police station in Selangor where 11 detainees escaped from last Saturday. Five have since been re-arrested.

He said the Puchong police station, which is only six years old, was not up to standard and that this was a contributing factor behind the breakout. Police negligence and overcrowding were other factors.

"The close circuit tv cameras were not functioning while five of the six toilets in the cells were out of order. To top that, part of the ceiling in the lock-up is made of plywood and that made it all the easier for the detainees to escape." he said.

The minister admitted that the breakout was due to the negligence of police personnel on duty who had "exercised their discretion to allow the detainees into the corridor for a break".

Three police personnel from the station have been suspended in connection with the escape.

More funds

Noh revealed that there are six cells in the lock-up at the Puchong station, each meant for only up to three people. However, on the night of the breakout, a total of 76 detainees were being held at the station.

Noh announced that repairs and upgrading of the Puchong station will begin tomorrow and be completed over two weeks.

He said the RM50 million allocated by the government in 2002 to repair, upgrade and expand lock-ups had been insufficient to improve all such facilities and to install cameras, adding that a request would be sumbitted for more funds.

Asked if the present situation in the lock-ups would stop the police from continuing to make arrests, the minister replied in the negative.

"In fact we are going to catch more criminals. This includes snatch thieves," he said.

Asked if the government's proposal to invoke the Emergency Ordinance to detain snatch thieves was appropriate, he said: "It is not a question of appropriateness as we need to nab these criminals who are mainly repeat offenders whom the courts cannot convict due to lack of evidence and witnesses."

"In fact, we've already been using it to arrest those whom the police believe to be snatch thieves based on their investigations."

The Emergency Ordinance allows suspects to be remanded for 60 days and detained for a further two years without trial.