KOTA BARU, March 16 — The police will add 19 more Child Interview Centres (CIC) to the Sexual, Abuse and Child Investigation Division (D11) under Bukit Aman to deal with sexual and abuse cases involving children and women throughout the country.

Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (JSJ) director Datuk Seri Abd Jalil Hassan said so far there are only 15 CICs, which are under Bukit Aman’s Sexual, Abuse and Child Investigation Division (D11), in the whole country, which means one in each police contingent.

He said the addition of 19 more CICs has been approved and now PDRM is looking for suitable locations.

"Each state will have another CIC added, including another in Kelantan which is in Machang.

"In Sabah and Sarawak, two more will be added for each state because of the vastness of the states in addition to providing facilities for witnesses and victims,” he said after inaugurating the CIC located at the PDRM Housing in Kemumin here today.

Abd Jalil said it was PDRM’s intention to establish a CIC in each district but due to constraints, the matter had to be postponed.

According to him, every CIC that will be established should be centrally located in a PDRM area because they do not want victims or witnesses to feel uncomfortable as they prefer to be closer to home.

"The establishment of this CIC has also received cooperation from domestic and foreign agencies including the United Nations (UN) and every police officer here has received sufficient training.

"In addition to that, D11 has also received the addition of a special appointment of 100 officers and four of them are stationed in Kelantan,” he said.

Commenting on the increase in sexual and abuse cases in the country, Abd Jalil said it could be due to the current dire economic situation where many people are stressed out in terms of lifestyle.

He said the tense situation caused some to suffer from domestic problems where spouses are hurt and neglected children then stray into negative activities.

"Police would like to advise parents to always monitor their children’s behaviour including the websites they surf.

"We don’t want children to be influenced and be addicted to pornographic pictures or videos which can cause them to become receptive to incest or free sex,” he said. — Bernama