Manama: Bahrain's Police Chief denied allegations of a lenient approach towards lawbreakers on Sunday.
He said the police tackled more than 30,000 cases in 2007 and some of them were solved within hours or a few days. The Chief highlighted efforts to tackle economic crime by succeeding in returning a total of 220 million dinars (Dh2,147 million) to people who were cheated in fraud cases last year.
The Chief of Public Security, Major General Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani, said in a statement that the police were performing their responsibilities with a high level of efficiency and there was no room for ineffectiveness in dealing with crime reported by citizens and official statistics were the best evidence of this.
The Police Chief was responding to statements in a local newspaper on Sunday by Salafist MP Adel Al Muawda criticising what he claimed as the inefficiency of security forces in dealing with complaints about armed gangsters and criminals in remote areas. Al Muawda also criticised the ministry for not taking MPs' security complaints seriously.
Al Zayani hailed the efforts of all Ministry of Interior employees in reinforcing security.
Fast response
"Those running police stations should be appreciated for their fast response to complaints and fighting crime, rather than unjustified criticisms by responsible individuals who know exactly the operations of the ministry and how it tackles public issues."
Al Zayani said that questions and proposals by MPs were seriously tackled with transparency.
"With all due respect, the lawmaker's allegations didn't state cases but generalised and said that all police stations don't take complaints seriously and that makes it difficult for us to investigate the issue."
Al Zayani also denied the increase in the use of unlicensed weapons in criminal activities.
