KL top cop defends city police’s role at Coldplay concert

KUALA LUMPUR: The police’s responsibility during the recent Coldplay concert was to keep the peace and the objective was achieved, the Kuala Lumpur top cop says.

Comm Datuk Allaudeen Abdul Majid said that he was aware of several comments about the poor flow of traffic during the concert that was held on Nov 22.

“I have to stress here that our responsibility was to ensure safety and that the concert went off without any incident. That was our main objective.

“On traffic conditions, we have to understand that the concert was held on a Wednesday (Nov 22) during rush hour when people are going home. So we can expect traffic congestion (to occur) and we have also encouraged people to use public transportation.

“So if there are 75,000 people in attendance but only 10,000 parking lots of course there would be traffic congestion,” he said after the city police’s monthly assembly on Thursday (Nov 30).

The management of the concert falls onto the organisers, not the police, Comm Allaudeen said.

“As such we are not involved in organising the flow of people entering and exiting the stadium or helping them find the right entrance,” he said.

He emphasized that the duty of the police there was to ensure the safety of everyone that day.

“And we had achieved that objective,” he said.

In a previous column, The Star’s managing editor Brian Martin said that the huge crowds during the concert were badly managed, with standstill traffic around the venue.

“The concert promoter, the stadium board and even the police should be taken to task for an evening that left a bitter taste in the mouth.

“The irony was that there was a huge police presence in the stadium. The Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) was deployed following concern about possible protests over the concert.

“Any planned protests fizzled out and the FRU personnel on duty were left milling around their vehicles. Meanwhile, outside the stadium where the chaos was taking place, there were far too few traffic cops to handle the situation,” he wrote.