And in the five times it was mobilised -- two children were recovered successfully in Penang last year, one was found burnt to death in Johor early this year, and two more who were reported missing in 2010, have yet to be found.
The two recovered are Dass Robert, 7, and Santiran Damaraj, 8, two boys who had gone missing on Dec 14 and 13 respectively in Air Itam, Penang.
The one found dead was 5-year-old Nurul Nadirah Abdullah, who went missing on March 1 and whose charred remains were found in an abandoned housing site in Nusa Damai, Masai, Johor last week.
The two still missing are Nisha Chandramohan and Lee Xin Ru, two 2-year-olds who disappeared in 2010. Police initiated the NUR Alert as a dry-run for them before it was officially activated in January, last year.
Five is a small number indeed going by the 54 missing children cases in 2010, 69 last year, and so far, three this year.
Thankfully, all the other missing children, excluding the five, eventually returned home on their own.
Assistant commissioner of police, Hamidah Yunus, director of the Sexual Crimes, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Investigations division (D11) in the Royal Malaysian Police, told the New Sunday Times that not all cases of missing children would immediately trigger the alert system.
Hamidah, who is also in charge of the NUR Alert, said: "Once there's a report of a missing child, we will identify whether it's necessary to hebahkan (spread the word). Initially, we will investigate whether it is a kidnapping case."
When asked how long does an initial investigation take before police decide to use the NUR Alert or not, Hamidah answered, "within 24 hours. We have to take 24 hours before we decide. Sometimes earlier. Depends on the facts of the case."
Interestingly, when the NUR Alert was triggered to recover Dass and Santiran, eight days had lapsed from when the first police report was lodged.
Dass was reported missing on Dec 14, the same day he disappeared, while Santiran's parents only lodged a police report on Dec 18 after failing to locate him themselves.
Thankfully these two boys were found within 24 hours after the NUR Alert was initiated to locate them on Dec 22.
They were apparently held by a woman who was also a drug addict in a nearby flat, who has since been charged in court, found guilty, and fined RM1,000 (S$410) in February.
Yet, why the long delay before the alert was triggered?
Hamidah said: "I don't know what the suspicion was. This Penang case really did take a long time. For cases of missing children, if initial investigations show that it does not involve kidnapping for ransom, then an alert should be sent out quickly so that the public can assist in finding the missing children."
But she assured that even if the NUR Alert was not triggered, right after a police report was lodged on a missing person -- be it a child or an adult -- there would be an immediate internal alert issued to the whole police force in the country.
Yet, police at the SS17 station could not recognise 7-year-old Wan Hazim Mohd Kadir who went missing on March 10, but was found wandering along the Kesas Highway by a good Samaritan some eight hours later, apparently in shock, when he was brought in.
Clueless about who he was and unable to get the boy to talk, they then sent him to a welfare home. More shockingly, Wan Hazim's parents had reportedly gone to the same police station the next day at about 4pm to distribute flyers of their missing child, yet police officers there did not realise that the boy on the flyer was the same one brought in the night before.
It was only at about 10pm later that night that the parents received a call from the police that someone resembling their boy had been found. Hamidah's response: "It's very difficult for me to explain. If we follow (protocol), if there is a case of such nature, they have to hebahkan internally. I don't know if they have done so or not. If they have spread the alert, maybe the person on duty that day did not inform the next chap who took over. There are such cases. In this situation, it's very difficult for me to comment."
Back to the NUR Alert, Hamidah revealed that while police were in charge of the system, it did not provide guidance to any members on its task force -- and she certainly did not know any of their standard operating procedure.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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