KUALA LUMPUR, 18 July — The Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) which came into effect on July 1, 2023, has received 348 complaints, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said out of that number, seven complaints are still in the commission’s investigation process.

“As for the nature of the seven cases, a police (PDRM) personnel made a complaint against a superior because there was no action on the initial complaint.

“Also among the seven complaints are integrity issues, that the recruitment for the rank of inspector is said to have elements that compromise integrity, that there is also sexual harassment,” he said during the question-and-answer session.

He said this in response to a question from Ramkarpal Singh (PH-Bukit Gelugor) regarding the number of complaints against police officers under the act and the decisions that were made on the complaints.

Responding to Ramkarpal’s additional question regarding the number of cases investigated by the IPCC, Saifuddin said that under Section 25 of the Independent Police Conduct Commission 2022 (Act 839) itself, it allows the classification of cases to be referred to other authorities that have the jurisdiction to investigate and enforce.

“This allows the IPCC to classify the complaints. If it is of a corrupt nature under Section 25(a), then the IPCC channels it to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, while some are channelled directly to the relevant authorities under Section 25(b).

“Section 25(d) is under the jurisdiction of the PDRM, Section 25(e) is No Further Action or a trivial complaint while 25© is directly under the jurisdiction of the IPCC, hence a total of seven (cases are being investigated by IPCC),” he said.

Commenting further, he said that of the 348 complaints, the largest number of complaints received involved criminal elements, including violence, sexual harassment, drugs, forgery of documents, threats, as well as issues related to integrity, which are subject to the jurisdiction of the Police Act 1967 (Act 344).

Responding to Ramkarpal’s additional question as to whether the government intends to empower the IPCC to give it more authority to deal with complaints against police officers, Saifuddin said the Ministry of Home Affairs was taking an approach to give space and trust to the IPCC which has been in effect for only a year.

“The principle that we hold that a law is dynamic, not static... until a certain period I think when it is untenable ... but for now we think its existence is sufficient.

“Currently, the position taken by the ministry is that the existence of the IPCC is a necessity that we can defend until such time in the future when there is a need to review this act, we will then look at it at that time,” he said.

The IPCC is a Federal Statutory Body established under Section 3 of Act 839 which was gazetted on Oct 18, 2022.

The establishment of the IPCC is to exercise its functions and powers as an independent monitoring body against the police force from the aspect of investigating complaints related to misconduct. — Bernama