KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar revealed today that over 1,300 police personnel faced disciplinary action last year as part of a major clean-up exercise to the force’s operations.
He said a total of 1,391 personnel, or 1.23 per cent out of the 112,000 that make up the police force nationwide, has been booked for offences ranging from bribery to abuse of power and tarnishing the force’s reputation.
“This is a serious figure in my opinion, that is why we need to take steps to form an Integrity Department, to make sure we can manage incidences of misconduct and fraud,” he said at a special press conference with the media here.
Khalid, who took over from Tan Sri Ismail Omar as federal police chief in May last year, said disciplinary action that was taken included docking or withholding salaries, fines, demotions and summary dismissal of personnel.
He, however, did not have a detailed breakdown of the offences available.
Khalid noted that with the soon-to-be established Integrity and Procedure Compliance Department (JIPS), Bukit Aman is hopeful that it can better manage incidences of corruption and misconduct.
Currently, police personnel at all levels are required to declare their assets every five years and update their profiles as and when they have acquired new assets.
Any corruption case involving a police officer, however, is first referred to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), Khalid said.
“If they cannot press charges, then the case will be referred back to us for disciplinary action... that is why JIPS is being set up,” he said of the need to upgrade the police’s capabilities to deal with internal misconduct.
Khalid added that JIPS — to be helmed by a police officer with the rank of Commissioner — will also play the role of improving on the police’s standard operating procedures (SOP), including in the management of police assets.
He acknowledged that the creation of JIPS was partly in response to criticism of the police’s management of its assets as highlighted by the Auditor-General’s 2012 Report, which found assets ranging from guns to vehicles missing from the police inventory.
“You can say that is one of the reasons for it, but we have worked on improving on our asset management.
“We expect to fine-tune it further to minimise future loss of such assets,” he said.
He added that the new department would work closely with Bukit Aman’s disciplinary division to firm up on integrity within the force.
Khalid said the police are at the same time pushing its new public complaints mechanism to help improve their efficiency on taking action on any and all complaints lodged against policemen.
Called the Integrated Public Agency Complaints Monitoring System or i-SPAAA, he said the public will also be accorded protection under the “blue code of silence” where their identities will be kept secret.
“This will give the public the best avenue to submit their complaints so we can take effective action.
“This will be one channel for all complaints, be it via email, phone or they can even come physically to lodge a complaint... everything will be received and processed by i-SPAAA,” he said.
