A PROPOSAL to establish a special department to protect children against crime and abuse will once again be presented to the cabinet on Friday, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri said.

She added that the proposal was previously rejected because the cabinet decided it was too expensive.

“Before the Budget is tabled on Friday, I will once again present this proposal and we will continue to press for the creation of this department,” she said in Kuala Lumpur today.

She said the new proposal would be more holistic, and hoped that the cabinet would give it due consideration.

Nancy said police were in dire need of the latest equipment as well as additional staff to deal with crimes.

“We found that CID’s sexual, women and child investigations division needs the latest high-tech computer equipment in addition to an updated system including large and sophisticated data storage to deal with cases, including pornographic crimes,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bukit Aman CID director Abd Jalil Hassan said the police plan to increase the number of children’s interview centres (CICs) from its current 14 centres nationwide.

“We want to add two centres each in Sarawak and Sabah, and one in Pahang due to the large demographics,” he said.

The CIC was established in 2002 as a centre in the division to take statements from children who are victims of criminal cases such as rape and abuse. – Bernama, February 20, 2023.