Sentul police chief Mohd Rodzi Ismail should resign in view of his failure to stop a spate of crime that resulted in the death of college student Lee Kean Yip, according to opposition party Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Investigations have not led to any suspects being identified to date, said party vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye in a statement that also expressed condolences to the 18-year-old student's family.

"We call upon Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as Home Minister, to look at this case as a need to bring discipline and productivity to the police force so that they can focus on crime prevention and public security," Lee said.

"Even with a 90,500-strong police force as at March, the distribution of (personnel) is not balanced in densely populated areas. For example, Jinjang with a population of 500,000 has only 57 police personnel."

Installing CCTVs not good enough

He said the incident was reflective of the government's failure to address public safety concerns, and that it reinforced the need to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission as a watchdog.

"Keadilan calls on the prime minister to reconsider (the proposal) so that the quality of service and productivity of the police force is improved for the protection of people and property, which (demands) more than installing CCTVs," he added.

Kean Yip, a first-year accountancy student of Tunku Abdul Rahman College in Kuala Lumpur, was murdered in a slash-and-rob incident while walking back to his hostel in Taman Melati after dinner on July 29.

About 15 minutes later, another college student sustained injuries in a similar incident in the same area, with the attackers described as two men on a motorcycle.