Police to step up security at KLIA

SEPANG, April 15 – Several improvement measures will be taken to raise the level of airport security and the efficiency of police personnel including the use of electric scooters, said Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan.

He said the use of electric scooters or self-control scooters had been planned at the beginning of the year and the Selangor government agreed to buy the equipment for use by Selangor police.

“We will get (scooters) in the near future and when we have these scooters, the police’s response will be faster and could patrol a wider area in a short time. This is one of the methods that the police will deploy later,” he said.

Hussein said police will propose to the airport to install scanners to tighten control especially for members of the public who enter with prohibited items such as firecrackers and firearms.

He said that better control is necessary for early detection especially on individuals carrying prohibited items.

He said the level of security at the airport will be reviewed so that the recent shooting at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 can be prevented earlier.

“If the people bring firecrackers into the airport, we can’t stop them because it’s a public place. At the airport, there are airside and landside where the airside (area) is prohibited while the landside (area) is open. So maybe there should be stricter control there so that people don’t bring prohibited items to endanger civilians at the airport,” he said.

Hussein said the people can now enter the airport area without strict controls unlike other countries that have scanners.

Other recommendations, he added include closing the corridors near the gate of the arrival and departure halls. 

He said the vehicle parking  lane close to the arrivals and departures gates also exposed the airport to high risk because individuals could park their cars and enter the airport easily.

“This is a proposal by the police for a long time ago. We used to disallow the public from entering the area because of security factors. It threatens the security of the airport area because people can drive in and enter the airport without control,” he said.

On the other hand, the outside lane would make it easier for police officers to patrol and it would be more difficult to do carry out undesirable acts, he said.