What, When ,Who ,Where ,Why & How (5W+1H)

Rules of Communiciation is vital during emergencies and to save lives. The concept of 5 W+ 1H should be practiced widely by members of the public when making emergency calls. They stand for What, When,Who Where,Why and How.

A distressed caller should be calm enough to pass on the essential information such as name, contact number, location and type of emergency to the auhorities in the shortest possible time so that prompt action can be taken.

In most cases, use the key words(5 W+1H) in simple Bahasa Malaysia. The inability to speak in simple B.M is no longer an excuse among Malaysians especially after 50 years of independence. Look at those Bangladeshi workers around us, they speak better B.M than some of us when they were in this country for less than six months!

Meanwhile, 150,000 Police Hotline stickers sponsored by China Press, MCCC,KCC and others were widely distributed since August 2007 among the public within Muar. It stated the direct telephone numbers of police call centres at three levels such Muar(district),Johor(state) and Bukit Aman(Federal).

The Police, on the other hand should train up some of their telephone operators at call centres to become fast thinkers,in the hope to transform them to be the finest PR officers on earth. They must be friendly,polite and able to calm down the distressed callers. Those working at customer counters should also able to respond accurately and quickly.

You may ask:"What if my report is intepreted as a non- issue or rejected by the officer on duty?" Days are gone when your reports were conveniently rejected by tactless officers.

Last July, former Johor CPO Dato'Hussin Ismail had introduced a "Contact Me Campaign" where every OCPD contact number is displayed infront of every police station with clear explanation in Bahasa Malaysia,English,Mandarin and Tamil.

Contrary to the olden days where many laymen felt more comfortable to find a "middleman" or "runner"to accompany them to police stations, you have now the direct access to your police top brass.

You may now have access to your OCPD to report your grievances if 1) bribery by officers 2)poor customer service 3) report rejected.

Besides, the public could meet face- to- face and to go heart-to-heart with the OCPD on "Police Open Day" every Friday 9.30am to 12.00pm to lodge your complaints or just sharing your many ideas and suggestions. In Muar, residents associations had in many instances seized the chance to bring along their neighbours and friends to say hello to the OCPD on Fridays.

With so many clever ideas in place, our men in blue should make known to the public the simple communiciation channels available via awareness campaigns and strive hard to pass on the correct message to every corner of the society. Nothing is more effective than educating the public.

Now, who dare say that our police officers are unreachable and not responsive?