Beef up police presence at airports, says criminologist

Criminologist Shahul Hamid Abdul Rahim says more police officers should be deployed to patrol areas in airports frequented by civilians.

PETALING JAYA: Experts have advised an increase in police presence, the installation of scanners and the deployment of K-9 units as key ways to check criminal activity at airports.

Criminologist Shahul Hamid Abdul Rahim said more police officers must be deployed to patrol areas frequented by civilians who are at the airport to send off or pick up passengers.

He told FMT that unlike auxiliary policemen, police officers are trained to identify patterns that forewarn criminal activities and to handle cases such as the recent shooting at the KLIA.

Shahul, a former immigration operations chief at KLIA, said scanners should also be installed at all entrances to the arrival and departure halls to prevent the smuggling of prohibited items, particularly weapons, into the terminal.

At about 1.30am on Sunday, a man armed with a pistol opened fire at his wife inside Terminal 1 of KLIA. The shots missed his wife but hit her bodyguard, causing him serious injuries.

The suspect fled the scene but was arrested three days later in Kelantan.

Following the incident, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said the police, National Security Council and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd would meet to discuss ways to enhance security at KLIA.

Airport operations and flight management expert Wan Mazlina Wan Mohamed said dogs should be used to detect weapons and explosives.

“Dogs are also quicker than humans when there is a need to pursue a suspect,” she told FMT.

Mazlina, director of UiTM’s Malaysia Institute of Transport, said the country could learn from other international airports renowned for their high standard of safety and security features.

She singled out Singapore’s Changi Airport, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, Japan’s Haneda Airport, the Netherlands’ Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Switzerland’s Zurich Airport as good examples to emulate.

She said an artificial intelligence-powered surveillance system with facial recognition capabilities would also ensure that security officers are quickly alerted when something is amiss.

Mazlina said weapons detection systems that utilise sensing technology such as millimetre-wave radar and passive infrared sensors are now freely available.

“They can help to identify potential threats in real time by just screening groups of people as they walk through. We don’t even have to stop them,” she said.

“This system is capable of detecting firearms and other threats, enabling security personnel to take the necessary action in advance,” she added.