THE Integrity and Standard Compliance Department does not protect or victimise any officer or personnel who have committed offences and those who are found to have done so are punished accordingly, director Azri Ahmad said.

“We have our rule of law that respects the basic tenets of justice for all parties regardless of whether they are criminals, when there are statements pointing to the establishment of an offence or abuse of power.

“No parties have been victimised and police are fair to all parties. Obviously investigations on abuse of power involving officers and personnel would have its own challenges,” he told Bernama recently.

Azri said a holistic investigation based on standard operating procedure would be conducted to ensure the stipulated offence receives the appropriate punishment.

He said police would not take action arbitrarily, in adherence to the rule of law.

“I wish to stress that disciplinary investigation is different from criminal investigation and the process should be detailed and transparent,” he said.

Apart from that, the department faces challenges such as difficulty to get the cooperation of public or independent witnesses to complete investigations, Azri said.

He said some cases involve complaints that are incomplete, details not clearly provided or insufficient statements for a certain investigation to proceed.

“For example, anonymous letters that do not have information of the sender, no information on the subject  and the type of offence committed and so on,” he said.     

Azri said if there are no basic information when a certain offence is committed, the department cannot commence the probe.

“As such, I am calling on members of the public or anybody making a complaint to provide basic information,” he said. – Bernama, February 27, 2022.