JOHOR BARU – The Johor police headquarters will be sending out special teams to all district police headquarters (IPDs) in the state from next month to make spot checks on status of investigation papers (IPs).
Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said he is still not satisfied with the supervision of IPs at the district level due to weaknesses on the part of district police chiefs and division heads, whether involving criminal, narcotics or commercial crime cases.
Ayob Khan said he will make no compromise if there are still weaknesses in the supervision of IPs, and that disciplinary action will be taken irrespective of whether the person responsible is the investigation officer (IO), senior investigating officer (SIO) or district police chief.
According to him, among the weaknesses found were IOs not submitting IPs to the deputy public prosecutor’s office even after having received the chemistry and pathology reports; no warrants of arrest sought when the accused cannot be traced; and no action taken for almost seven months despite having received instructions from the office to charge an accused.
Other weaknesses, he said, included IOs not distributing an IP for first circulation within 24 hours, no such circulation up to three months and SIOs or division heads being too brief/not thorough in issuing instructions to IOs.
“There were also cases of IOs not updating the RJ 9 (arrest) and RJ 99 (cases involving courts) forms. This failure has huge implications in the criminal record of suspects or prisoners.
“This the main reason offenders handed punishments (by courts) clear security vetting, and in fact, there are some among them working in the public and private sectors, including in the police force,” he said in the Johor police’s Performance Report for 2020 and Johor Police Chief’s message that was circulated to the media today.
He added that as personnel with wide policing experience and responsibilities, district police chiefs, division heads and SIOs should not offer excuses for weaknesses in supervision of IPs at their levels.
“What is clear here is a lack of supervision at the district level. We must ensure good supervision and that IPs are of quality. It is to ensure that cases brought before the courts result in convictions. This is what I want,” he said. – Bernama, January 30, 2021
