IPCC Bill gets green light

KUALA LUMPUR: The long-awaited Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) Bill has been passed by the Dewan Rakyat.

The Bill, which had been in Parliament’s Order Paper over the past two years, was finally tabled for a second reading by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin.

“The IPCC Bill was drafted after comparisons were made between the UK’s Independent Office for Police Conduct and Hong Kong’s Independent Police Complaints Council. These countries have monitoring bodies that act as an oversight body.

“These independent bodies only investigate misconduct, and their findings will be given to the relevant authorities for further action,” said Hamzah when responding to issues raised during debates on the IPCC in Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

He noted the IPCC has a mandatory provision that covers cases involving detainees with serious injuries, death and sexual crimes under police detention.

“This mandatory referral provision can ensure the police conduct transparent criminal investigations and, at the same time, quash negative public perception towards them,” he said, adding that this would prevent police from covering up misconduct involving detainees.

Earlier, during debates, Wong Hon Wai (PH-Bukit Bendera) questioned why several punitive actions against errant police, which were in the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), were removed from the present Bill. He said that the present proposed Bill was watered down.

RSN Rayer (PH-Jelutong) questioned why so many deaths occurred while detainees were in police custody.

Hamzah noted that there had been 93 deaths in police custody between 2015 and 2021.

He said most cases were due to illnesses, besides infighting among inmates and suicide.

He assured that death in custody cases are investigated to determine their cause.

The Bill replaced IPCMC, which the Pakatan Harapan administration tabled in July 2019.

However, the then-opposition bloc, consisting of Barisan Nasional, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), indicated they would not support the IPCMC Bill.

There was some resistance over the words “police misconduct” in the Bill, which gave a negative connotation to the police.

Following this, the IPCMC Bill was referred to a special select committee to allow for improvements to the proposed law.

The Bill was withdrawn and replaced by the IPCC Bill in August 2020.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun informed the House that a majority voice vote passed the IPCC.

The IPCC paves the way for the setting-up of an independent commission to monitor the integrity of the police force and probe complaints of misconduct involving police personnel.