Elderly who live alone can register with VSP for welfare checks - Police

SHAH ALAM - Volunteer Smartphone Patrol (VSP) can be used to check on the elderly who live alone, as this is considered a welfare check, says the Selangor Police Chief.

Selangor Police Chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said, in terms of police, there is engagement to check in with the police through the VSP programme.

He said it is an application that can be used when citizens go to their hometowns, and the public can update and register their homes for us to patrol when they are gone.

"They can also use the same system or ask their relatives for us to be aware of these things, such as the elderly who are staying alone.

"They can call the police, as we have people on the ground, so they can use the same platform.

"If the elderly people don't answer the call made to them, relatives can call the police station to request a welfare check.

"It’s like a welfare check, and they can use the same platform to check on the elderly," he told Sinar Daily recently.

In the last few months, there were almost 10 cases of elderly people found dead alone, which is a worrying trend.

In two of the latest cases, a senior citizen was found dead in his house in Taman Suria, Johor Baru on May 10 while on June 27, an elderly woman was found dead in a house in Taman Sri Gombak, Selangor.

The Statistics Department said senior citizens are expected to account for 15.3 per cent of the population by 2030.

A survey in 2018 estimated that 7.4 per cent of the elderly live alone.

Meanwhile, he also commented that there are a few cases involving domestic violence that are mostly related to drug addicts.

"When they are not normal, they tend to do weird things that normal people won’t do, as it always involves drugs.

"When we arrest people, we would put them on a urine test and also a psychological test later, so if during the interrogation we see that this person is not normal or doesn’t make sense, we would send them to a psychological test.

"This is because certain people are violent in prison, so we have to send them to the hospital, where they have specific facilities to put them properly," he said.