I refer to the Malaysiakini report Police to recruit retired soldiers.

First I must congratulate Dr Maximus Ongkili our Science, Technology and Innovation minister who mentioned that there must be a cost analysis before we decide on the next space programme.

The same analogy should be practiced by the police department. I understand that according to the IGP Musa Hassan, they are planning to purchase and install CCTVs in all 3,000 mobile patrol vehicles to curb bribery and aid crime-busting.

Is this how we solve problems - by using costly technology blindly without much research, study and analysis? Granted, we have a growing crime problem but have we analysed and quantified what are the real causes of crime?

Buying expensive equipment and increasing manpower at random is not the only way forward. Have we also analysed the ‘best practices’ of some countries such as Korea and Japan? What are they doing right there?

In those countries there is close collaboration with the local communities and information is given to the police by the public to help minimise and combat crime successfully. There is faith and trust when information is being given to the authorities. I wonder if this is true here in Malaysia.

Also, what is the ratio of policemen versus the population in such countries when compared to ours? How effective are our police training schools? What are the benchmarks for the police force? Are promotions done on merit?

Are our hiring criteria being updated? Do we reward the diligent and creative cops well? How do we handle deadwood that smear the image of the police force?

Collecting of statistics is very important to understand a problem in deeper perspective before the right actions are taken. Strategically, a longer-term perspective of the problems sharpens the immediate short-term action.

I believe using pricy technology and increasing manpower at random without much study may be short-term solutions but they can backfire in the longer term leading to more bureaucracy, expenditure, inefficiency and ineffectiveness.