COMMENT | The police cannot police the police

COMMENT | Have you heard how people in the police lockup have to pay RM300 for teh tarik, roti canai, and mee goreng? Or cops who work with touts and lawyers to inflate car insurance claims? How about cops who collect monthly “fees” to close one eye to illegal factories?

Or worse, cops who “recycle” drugs kept as “evidence”, cops who work with organised crime on prostitution, drugs, and illegal gambling, or even a cop worth RM34 million?

All these complaints were in the Royal Commission (RC) report to improve the police back in 2005. Have we seen much improvement since then?

I made a documentary 15 years ago about our police titled "Kopi O Khau Sikit Kurang Manis". What the Royal Commissioners told me back then was depressing.

Activist Ivy Josiah related how police often extort foreign workers. Prof Hamdan Adnan told me that if cops who “lick the boots” of their superiors get promoted, what incentive is there for cops to work hard to bust crime?

Even worse, the RC report speaks of police officers who were asked to pay RM40,000 to get promoted to “gold mine” sections of the force, such as the ones handling narcotics, prostitution, gambling, commercial crimes, procurement, promotions and, yes, traffic offences.

Is that why cops seem to...