IPOH: Enforcement agency officers who are collecting intelligence at the country's borders do not require a bulletproof vest, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said.
"They are required to wear a bulletproof jacket (only if) they are patrolling the country's borders but not when collecting intelligence.
"When on patrol, yes, they need to wear a uniform (and a bulletproof vest) but when (they are collecting intelligence, they are) undercover, so they can't wear (a bulletproof vest)," he told reporters after witnessing the handing over of duties for the Perak police chief at the Senior Police Officers' Mess of the state police headquarters.
Acryl Sani was commenting on the shootout between two General Operations Force (GOF) members and smugglers at the Malaysia-Thailand border early Tuesday which left one of the policemen dead and the other wounded.
In the 3.10am incident, corporals Baharuddin Ramli, 54, and Norihan Tari, 39, were gathering intelligence at the border in Perlis, when they stumbled onto a gang of 13 smugglers attempting to bring drugs into Thailand.
A shootout ensued and as they were only gathering intelligence and not on patrol, the two members of the GOF's Battalion 3, the famed Senoi Praaq, were lightly armed, carrying only their pistols.
Baharuddin and Norihan were both shot by the smugglers, with the former later dying of his wounds. Thai police later arrested four of the smugglers, three of whom were detained when they sought treatment for gunshot wounds, while Malaysian police arrested two others.
Acryl Sani said this was the third shooting incident at the border and as such, the Federal Internal Security and Public Order Department have carried out research to review the current standard operating procedure (SOP) in patrolling and collecting intelligence among enforcement agency officers.
"This shooting is not the first. This month alone, there had been two other incidents, on Nov 12 and 15. But fortunately, our men were not injured in both instances." he said.
"The research has been carried out since the first shooting incident occurred in the country on Nov 12. We need to know whether the current SOPs need to be strengthened to ensure the safety of the people and our men is our number one priority," he said.
On a separate matter, Acryl Sani said he hoped the government will speed up approvals for 36 new armoured personnel carriers (APC) to replace the current units which are 40 years old.
"We need new APCs so that our men can patrol the border especially in Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan as well as the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) safely. In fact, the current ones have no spare parts and are not in good condition.
"We applied for it last year and we hope to get the 36 APCs in stages. If we have 10 APCs at this moment, that would be great," he added.
