<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Can more be done to prevent crime on trains and at stations?
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to the police and SMRT reply ('Victim not dissuaded'; March 17) on a man who was assaulted on a train; and an earlier report ('Con man flees after cashing bogus cheque'; March 15) on how a man who cheated a money changer escaped after a struggle at Orchard MRT station.
I am appalled at these incidents and at the fact that the alleged culprits escaped with impunity.
If such cases cannot be prevented or the culprits apprehended, I dread to think what mayhem may be caused by more violent criminals or even terrorists.
SMRT's advice is that passengers who are assaulted should communicate with the train officer or operations control, but can more be done?
In both cases, SMRT staff were in the know. In the con man's case, could nothing be done at subsequent stations to look out for him and detain him, especially since, as a Caucasian, it would have been relatively easy to spot him?
SMRT staff and the Police MRT Unit (PMU) should step up patrols as a deterrent to potential criminals. SMRT should work with PMU on effective ways to identify and detain culprits.
Perhaps PMU officers, like the transit police in the United States, should maintain a more permanent presence in stations with higher volume of human traffic. Edwin Feng
I donch know...
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to the police and SMRT reply ('Victim not dissuaded'; March 17) on a man who was assaulted on a train; and an earlier report ('Con man flees after cashing bogus cheque'; March 15) on how a man who cheated a money changer escaped after a struggle at Orchard MRT station.
I am appalled at these incidents and at the fact that the alleged culprits escaped with impunity.
If such cases cannot be prevented or the culprits apprehended, I dread to think what mayhem may be caused by more violent criminals or even terrorists.
SMRT's advice is that passengers who are assaulted should communicate with the train officer or operations control, but can more be done?
In both cases, SMRT staff were in the know. In the con man's case, could nothing be done at subsequent stations to look out for him and detain him, especially since, as a Caucasian, it would have been relatively easy to spot him?
SMRT staff and the Police MRT Unit (PMU) should step up patrols as a deterrent to potential criminals. SMRT should work with PMU on effective ways to identify and detain culprits.
Perhaps PMU officers, like the transit police in the United States, should maintain a more permanent presence in stations with higher volume of human traffic. Edwin Feng
I donch know...
