NGO members held its first meeting with the police royal commission today, but not before five speakers was rudely prevented by commission chairperson Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah from entering the meeting room.

Dzaiddin, who was screening individuals before they could enter the meeting room, stopped five members of the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee when he apparently found fault with them for introducing themselves as lawyers, in addition to being members of the police watchdog group.

A short argument broke off when Dzaiddin - who is former chief justice - then told Police Watch member P Uthayakumar to "shut up".

Uthayakumar retorted, "Don't tell me to shut up". He was then allowed into the meeting room, held at the Putra World Trade Centre.

Closed-door meeting

Despite being touted earlier as an open meeting with the public, today's session saw a sole member of the public present at the discussion being told to leave the hall.

Chuah Siew Eng said she called the commission yesterday to enrol but was told to go ahead and show up at the meeting, since those in charge of registering the public were not available.

Reporters were also barred from observing the proceedings.

When asked on this later, Dzaiddin said the public need to register with the commission at least one day ahead of any open meeting.

Happy with commission

Meanwhile, after exiting the meeting room where he presented Police Watch's position to the commissioners, Uthayakumar told reporters that the organisation was "happy that the commission listened and will published a report that will be made public."

Uthayakumar, who is also opposition party Prim pro-tem chairperson, said statistics show that 1.3 persons are killed by the police each week, and that a person dies in police custody every two days.

He also reminded that the police should be investigated over their role in the Kampung Medan racial attacks three years ago, where six were killed and more than 100 injured.

Pictures of a man suspected of having been thrown into the Klang river after escaping in handcuffs, was also displayed to the press.

52 complaints received

Dzaiddin told a press conference later that the commission has received 52 complaints against the police since the launching its website one week ago, and will be looking into each and every complaint.

He also said three working committees have been set up within the commission to look more specifically into corruption in the force, training and development of police personnel, and one other which looks into police duties and human rights, including women's rights.

The next commission meeting will be held the following Thursday, March 11, said Dzaiddin, adding that the commission will soon commence its visits to individuals states.

The commissioners had a meeting with Anti-Corruption Agency officers earlier in the morning to discuss issues related to the police force.