KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — State police chiefs (CPOs) have been ordered to tighten screenings at the border checkpoints now that domestic travel restrictions have been eased somewhat, Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador said today.

He said that he had received complaints that some police officers had been lax in manning some state border checkpoints after the movement control order (MCO) was lifted on March 4.

“Sometimes there is not a single officer manning the roadblocks, where there might as well not be a roadblock.

“There were even incidents of officers waving traffic by while sitting on a chair at these blocks. These duties cannot be trivialised by the officers.

“So I have told all the CPOs to increase and tighten up all the roadblocks in their states, and how checks must be done more stringently and persistently,” he said in a news conference at Bukit Aman.

Abdul Hamid said his instructions have been conveyed to the CPOs to ensure that action be taken against those who give flimsy excuses when trying to cross the state borders.

He said it is necessary as a deterrent to others looking to exploit possible loopholes as that could lead to new Covid-19 infection clusters.

“So I do not want to see the Royal Malaysia Police being blamed when an interstate traveller causes a new cluster.

“So I have given instructions to them to make sure these movements do not happen, and I will take action against the CPOs in states where roadblocks are being run ineffectively or not controlled properly,” he said.

Abdul Hamid included that orders to include senior officers among those manning the roadblocks have also been given out to the CPOs to ensure an equal spread of the duties.