The Bar Council has reiterated its call to the government to establish the often called for Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), citing the success of similar oversight mechanisms abroad.

The IPCMC appears to be necessary in order for the police force to weed out rogue elements among its ranks and enhance its ability to discharge its duties to the public, the deputy chairperson of the Bar Council Task Force on IPCMC, Firdaus Husni, said.

“It is high time that the government gives birth to the IPCMC. This form of external oversight has been effective in meeting the challenges faced by the police force in other jurisdictions,” Firdaus said at a forum on police accountability hosted by the council in Kuala Lumpur last night.

The IPCMC is a key recommendation in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on the police force that was published in 2005, which said that the Royal Malaysian Police’s own internal oversight mechanism was ‘inadequate, unreliable and frequently ineffective’.