IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today the use of robots and drones would improve efforts at crime busting by curbing human error in policing. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 16 — For Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, the future of Malaysian crime fighting lies in robots and drones.

The country’s top policeman who has shown himself to be adaptable to 21st-century technology said today the use of robots and drones would improve efforts at crime busting by curbing human error in policing.

“While robotics cannot negate or neutralise the intruders, they can send out alerts to the police while assisting in disrupting and delaying the crime in progress,” he said in his speech at an international conference on the National Blue Ocean Strategy here.

Khalid who has embraced Twitter use as part of his work said robots and drones could be used to capture and send videos of a crime in progress that could speed up crime fighting work.

As an example, he said security personnel hired to guard residences and businesses may not be as efficient as many employed in Malaysia today were foreigners who often face language and cultural barriers.

“They may not be as effective as drones in terms of progression and we [as] humans, we are always subjected to human error,” he said.

IGP later told reporters that police officers are now being trained to handle drones, adding that they will be used to monitor public rallies.