Malaysian police to learn from NYPD to repair negative public image – Bernama
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is set to share its best practices in fighting corruption among its officers with the Malaysian police force in an effort to improve public perceptions of police integrity in the country.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the NYPD had experienced negative perception problems on its integrity among the Americans 20 years ago but had managed to overcome them through the implementation of the best practices.
“Malaysian police are currently facing a similar problem too although they managed to bring the crime rate down,” he told Malaysian media today.
The best practices stipulate an officer is considered to have committed an offence if they, among others, refuse to take reports, dispute an arrest or summons, harbour criminal associations, disagree with department policy or action, are involved in domestic disputes, harassment or missing property and misuse office computers as well as other off-duty misconducts.
He hoped the best practices learnt from the NYPD could help alleviate the negative perception by the Malaysian public of the police, thus enhancing its integrity.
“The public have the perception that majority of the police are corrupted,” he said.
Zahid said he had discussed ways to improve Malaysian police integrity when meeting with NYPD senior officials, its internal affairs as well as former NYPD chief Charles V. Campisi.
“The NYPD has managed to tackle systemic corruption, opportunistic corruption and familiarity corruption among its officers,” he said.
Last May, Malaysian police set up the Standard Compliance and Integrity
Department in an effort to combat corruption and integrity problems within the force.
The department has also been set up at every police contingent and district level, Zahid said.
Apart from the best practices, Zahid said Malaysian police were also looking into ways to improve its services scheme as one of the initiatives to fight corruption. – Bernama, September 29, 2014.
