IPOH: Police will cooperate with various agencies and associations to check the rising white-collar crime.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said police could work together with banks or trade associations to help detect cheating cases.

“We can also work together with banks and trade associations and come up with new methods to prevent white-collar crime,” he told reporters after witnessing a handing over of duty ceremony between newly appointed Perak police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan and acting chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Zakaria Yusof at the Perak police contingent headquarters here yesterday.

Changing hands: Zakaria (right) handing over the baton to Mohd Shukri during the ceremony witnessed by the IGP in Ipoh on Thursday.

Ismail said this when asked to comment on a recent crime analyst’s report that white collar crimes were hard to overcome.

“We need to continuously remind the people that cheating is a crime and those guilty will be severely dealt with,” he said.

On another matter, Ismail urged all state police chiefs to come up with new initiatives to combat crime in 2011.

“We need to come up with effective methods to lower the crime rate. There are bound to be new challenges in the form of new crime methods and police should be equipped with the necessary skills to combat them,” Ismail said.

DCP Mohd Shukri, who became Perak’s 18th police chief, said he would do his best to serve the people and bring the crime rate down in 2011.

The former Terengganu police chief noted that Perak was a large state with the most number of district police stations in the country.

DCP Mohd Shukri took over the post from DCP Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah, who is now Kuala Lumpur police chief.