The Police watch over us. Who watches over the Police?

The Star 28/6/13
(OPINION) By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

KUALA LUMPUR: Every modern police force in the world today requires a civilian oversight committee to watch over its men in blues.

This fact was recognised as early as 1829 by London Police Commissioner Sir Robert Peel who started transforming the London police from a force of village constables and night watchmen into a modern police force.

With the creation of a highly visible, distinctive, uniformed, full-time, paid police force organised on quasi- military lines came the fear of omnipresent police that would curtail civil liberties.

Thus was born the police oversight commission or civilian oversight committee call it by what name you want, but its role is almost always the same.

We need something, someone or some independent mechanism to watch over our men in blues - to accept complaints against police, and vice versa, to investigate, to punish and to recommend changes to the force to make it better.

Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge V T Singham said the same in his judgement Wednesday ordering the government to pay RM801,700 in damages to the family of police detainee A. Kugan who killed in custody in 2009.

The family won their civil suit against the police and the government. Kugan's mother Indra Nallathamby, 43, had filed the civil suit claiming RM100 million in damages against the government and the police over what she claimed as the “brutal murder” of her son.

While the judge upheld her claims that Kugan was wrongly imprisoned and that the defendants had breached their duty of care to him, he also urged the speedy setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

He noted an increase in the number of death in custody cases and that this increase warrants the setting up of an independent commission such as IPCMC.

“The recommendation of the royal commission of inquiry must not be kept in cold storage and allowed to freeze.

It must be activated as soon as possible in order to assure that all concerned members of society, including family members of deceased persons, that an independent agency is looking into the matter without any influence from the local police officers,” Singham said.

The judge made another pertinent observation that is that “even if the police investigated such deaths dutifully” but that it would still lack credibility.

Credibility is the bedrock of any modern police force and credibility is what the public wants in our police force.

To ensure that the force acquires and keeps that credibility, all allegation against the police force i.e. misuse of force must be independently investigated and disposed of.

There's simply no other way of dealing with this issue except investigations by an independent body which will ensure that the probe is through and punishment meted out and the offence is not repeated.

Although the judge's observation is not legal binding but it still has a moral force of authority here is a judge of a High Court who says the IPMC has to be taken out of cold storage.

The IPCMC was first mooted by the path breaking Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by then Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah.

It came up with 125 recommendations but the main one, the establishment of an independent oversight committee that has since entered our annals as the IPCMC.

Despite numerous calls since 2006, the government has not found the political will to form such an independent commission and this is mainly because of strong opposition from the police force.

After much public debate it form a watered down and ineffectual Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) that has been dismissed as powerless and unable to bite.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is now offering the same EAIC as the government's IPCMC, while the opposition is demanding a true oversight commission.

As said earlier, it does not matter what one wants to call it but make the oversight commission independent, and truly able to perform its duties, not just warm the chairs.

In parliament Wednesday, Zahid also said there have been 231 deaths in custody between 2000 and May this year and only two were related to injuries cause by police.

The other deaths are caused by disease, illness, suicides and fights among detainees, he said.

Statistics are better used to fight public perception which is very much against the police force.

Statistics for instance shows that more Malays and not Indians had died in police custody, contrary to public perception.

But an independent oversight commission is necessary not because of death in police custody but because we simply need a mechanism to watch over the police and to ensure that police discharge their duties and use a force that is appropriate to the task.

The only person who seems to reject such a commission are some of the police bosses - past and present - and some politicians who support them.

Both falsely fear their hold on society might slip otherwise.

Simply put, a modern police force requires a modern mechanism such as an oversight commission, to police its own police force, to keep it in check and to ensure that no misuse happens.