KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — Last week, the Pakatan Harapan government tabled a Bill to set up an independent external oversight body of the police force, an initiative that has long been demanded by civil society to deal with allegations of police misconduct including custodial deaths.

The Bill is quite a comprehensive draft of the proposed law, with 38 pages covering 60 main provisions and explanatory notes to cover any possible issues that one might be able to think of.

Below is Malay Mail’s quick guide to the Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill:

1. What is it called?

The IPCMC Bill will be called the Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission Act 2019, or the IPCMC Act if it is passed as law.

2. What will it do?

The Bill is to set up the IPCMC and state its functions and powers, as well as what kind of complaints regarding the police would be handled and how these complaints would be investigated, and disciplinary proceedings to deal with misconduct and the punishments that can be meted out on errant police personnel.

The Bill lists five functions that the IPCMC will have, namely to promote integrity within the police force as well as to advise the government and recommend measures for such promotion of integrity; to protect public interest by dealing with police misconduct; to formulate and put in place mechanisms for the detection, investigation and prevention of police misconduct; and to "exercise disciplinary control” over the police.

The IPCMC’s powers include advising the government on the enhancement of the police’s welfare and well-being, and to audit and monitor police facilities, operations and procedures.

3. But who will scrutinise the police?

The IPCMC is to have 10 appointed members at maximum — including a chairman and deputy chairman, but with the condition that none of them is a current or former police personnel or a public servant.

The IPCMC members’ appointments by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the prime minister is for a maximum three-year term, and they can only hold the position for a maximum two terms in a row. The paid position is revocable by the Agong.

Being an IPCMC commissioner is a serious job which will be lost if one becomes bankrupt, becomes a federal or state lawmaker (MP or ADUN), or is convicted of an offence involving corruption, fraud, dishonesty or punishable with imprisonment or a RM2,000 fine, or is absent from three IPCMC meetings in a row without permission, or is of unsound mind or incapable of discharging one’s duties. 

Besides having up to 10 members, the IPCMC will also have appointed officers to carry out the work, including officers seconded from other government agencies to be investigators, or lawyers in private practice or those from the Judicial and Legal Service.

If you are being acted against or have been asked for information from someone claiming to be from IPCMC, you can ask them to produce their authority card — a card which will be signed by the IPCMC chairman and issued to IPCMC’s members and officers.

The IPCMC can also request to use the services of any staff or facilities of a government department or local authority or statutory authority, and also for help from any government officer or member of the police.

The IPCMC can also work together with and share information that shall be kept confidential to other enforcement agencies or state or federal government departments, while the police force also has the responsibility to co-operate and assist the IPCMC such as by providing information within their control or ability to obtain.

Although IPCMC commissioners cannot be former police officers, they can engage the services of retired or former police officers and others to be consultants. (The consultants can be part of task forces set up by the IPCMC to investigate cases of grievous hurt or death in police custody.)

5. What can the public complain about?

Under Section 22 of the proposed law, the public can write in to the IPCMC’s Complaints Committee about alleged misconduct by the police, including actions or inaction that are: