Time to disarm our cops?

IF the Inspector General of Police cannot persuade the grieving mother of Aminulrasyid Amzah that her son was a victim of mistaken identity, then how can he persuade the rest of us that his force is not staffed by trigger-happy policemen?

The police may be justified in shooting criminals in self-defence, but it is not acceptable to shoot a member of the public. On April 26, policemen gunned down 15-year-old Aminulrasyid as he approached his home, in Shah Alam.

In the past six months, innocent people have been shot with alarming frequency. In early April, police shot dead two brothers in Taiping as they were on the wanted list. Last October, 30-year-old Norizan Salleh was shot five times in Gombak, after allegations that her car tried to ram the police. Apparently, Aminulrasyid was also guilty of the same crime.

Recommendations were made to form the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), to investigate these and earlier shootings. With police objections, the ineffective Special Complaints Commission (SCC) was set up instead. It lacked accountability and transparency, was not fair in its investigation and could not dispense justice effectively.

Malaysians are going through a crisis of confidence with their police force. yet again. So, is it time we disarmed our policemen? Or at least, ensure that only the properly trained are allowed to carry firearms.

Stinging criticisms leveled at the police cover training, experience and attitude. Malaysia’s 100,000 policemen are to be boosted by 60,000 new recruits, to combat crime and maintain law and order.

In the 1980s and 1990s, new recruits faced a nine-month training programme. Later, this was reduced to six months, which was further shortened to three months, last February.

Apart from this incredibly short training period, various organisations were restricted in their efforts to review the statutes, policy and other guidelines covering firearms usage.

This frequency of accidental or negligent shooting raises the question of whether ordinary policemen should be routinely carrying firearms. In some police forces around the world, potential recruits from the ranks wishing to become armed policemen, do so by ‘invitation’.

They must successfully pass written psychological tests and possess security clearance before several weeks of intensive firearms training. Only experienced personnel of a certain calibre are selected to be armed policemen, summoned only when there is gun-crime.

Is our government compromising public safety and quality of policemen simply to fulfill the NKRA for the police force? A speedy recruitment drive should not be the main objective in reducing the crime index.

When things go wrong and there are fatalities, can the police individual responsible for pulling the trigger justify his actions in court? Thus far, no policeman has been made accountable, and all cases have been deemed closed.

Kids may play with guns in a game of ‘cops-and-robbers’, but an adult using a real gun in a life-and-death situation, is another matter. It is worse when the person who kills, is a policeman. It is time the police address several unanswered questions before someone, somewhere becomes another tragic statistic.

This comment was published in news portal Malaysian Mirror and edited for use on HU.