The Police Watch and Human Rights committee wants the new federal police chief to set up a special independent body to probe the reports against police officers as the current practice is ineffective.

Pro tem

chairperson RN Rajah has requested a meeting with newly-appointed Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar to discuss outstanding issues involving controversial police actions.

"The investigations have so far proven to be totally ineffective, so much so that the outcome itself raises more questions about the officers concerned.

"Where is the police's accountability and transparency?" he said in a letter to the police chief submitted today.

The committee falls under the wings of the yet-to-be-registered Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim).

The police watchdog also wanted Mohd Bakri to ensure there would be no more police shootings and killings and to scrap the continuous detention of suspects which has led to a series of police brutality cases and in some instances, deaths.

"We cannot deny that the police's image has reached a critical and worrying level, causing all kinds of public reaction towards police action," he said.

Standard reports

Rajah said recent media statements relating to police shootings were standard, such as 'we were monitoring the criminals'; 'we spotted them behaving suspiciously'; 'we asked them to stop/surrender, they opened fire, we opened fire and all the criminals were shot dead'.

"If the police were really monitoring the suspects' movements, why didn't they apprehend them alive and charge them in court? Was it necessary to shoot them dead?

"As usual, there will be no witnesses to the shootings, no officer would have been injured, there would be no bullet holes on the police cars and several pistols with live ammunition would have been found," he added.

Rajah said such stories have long been questioned by the public but nothing has come out of it due to the fear factor and inaction by the police against their own.

He added that deaths in lock-ups and excessive violence by the police have been widely reported and publicly criticised but no positive action has been taken to prevent a recurrence.

"This includes abuse of detainees to obtain confessions, another issue which has been widely reported and still generates a lot of heat," he added.

No reasons given

He said the police usually do not provide reasons for arresting or detaining a person.

"Family members, friends and the legal counsel are not given any explanation over the arrest, before ending up as a mystery.

"They are also given the runaround and details about the arrest, detention condition as well as who the investigating officer is or when the detainee will be charged are unavailable," he added.

Rajah, who is the pro tem Prim deputy secretary-general, said the police should adhere to the practice that every detainee is innocent until proven guilty by the court.

"The police must stop behaving as if they were judge, jury and executioner. Instead, they should adhere to the prevailing laws," he stressed.

Prim has demanded for inquests to be conducted for numerous cases of police killings, which its police watch committee has kept a tab on.