Retiring policemen can extend for three years

The Star

By V.P. SUJATA

PUTRAJAYA: Police personnel and officers who are retiring this year will be offered to extend their retirement for another three years in a bid to increase the number of police personnel in the force.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hoped that with this offer and the earlier move to re-employ retired police personnel on contract basis, the target to recruit an additional 60,000 for the force would be achieved sooner than expected.

"Waiting for new personnel to be trained at the various training centres would take at least seven years to meet this target and we can't possibly wait for such a long time.

"This is a good strategy in addition to re-employing 3,000 retired personnel on contract," he said, adding that the move would help increase the strength of the police force until new recruits complete their training.

According to Bukit Aman's Employment Division there are over 1,200 police personnel including 153 officers who will be retiring this year.

Abdullah said that also in the pipeline were two new training centres in Kedah and Pahang which he hoped would be completed soon.

He added that new police station projects under private finance initiatives were ongoing.