The Kepong Run

Every Wednesday, I take my sons to my mother-in-law’s house in Kepong. It gives her some extra time with her grandsons in addition to the weekly Sunday visits. I don’t mind the drive, even if it is a bit far to go, but I always hope for smooth off-peak traffic. We normally leave after 9:30am, but the LDP is very unpredictable.

One day, it took a whole hour to get to Kepong. And this was “off-peak” hours! Those poor office folks who were stuck in the jam way before we were would definitely have been very late for work.

Another time, it was smooth as silk, took no more than 35minutes. Most of the time, though, it would take about 40minutes, and that includes some slow (but moving) sections of the LDP.

What is predictable these days, is increased police presence. I see them everywhere, especially on my Wednesday Kepong runs. Sometimes on main roads, sometimes on not-so-main roads. They look like they’re stopping very specific people. For example, they stand in wait around the corner where you can’t see them and those who beat the red lights get it. But then, also, they’re in clear view on the straight stretch of the main road so I’m not sure who they’re looking for in those cases.

I’d take some pictures of them, but, uh, well, I’d rather not attract attention to myself. While I haven’t been rushing through any red lights, I think “Attempting to Take Photographs of Police Officers” might constitute ‘suspicious behaviour’.

There are certain spots that I know for sure they will sit and wait, but for what I don’t know. One is on Persiaran Surian just after you exit the LDP and turn left to head towards Mutiara Damansara. There are usually about a dozen of them there. It causes a massive jam, especially if it’s around noon.

There’s another predictable spot. If you're on the NPE (heading towards Sunway from Subang Jaya) and you turn right onto the LDP heading towards the Sunway toll, they're likely to be there probably waiting for either queue jumpers or those who run the red light.

Anyway, it got me thinking, maybe it is true, that more police presence makes for more civilised driving. It’s not even necessarily actual enforcement that makes us less prone to breaking the law, but the perception of enforcement. Furthermore , if increased presence can deter petty thieves and other small time criminals, then hopefully these would-have-been petty thieves would not move on to larger and worse crimes.

According to the newspapers, the police force is trying to increase their presence, so I think that it’s working. It will take awhile before their increased presence will make me feel safe, as is their objective, but if they continue the way they are doing now, I think public perception of the police would improve dramatically.