KUALA LUMPUR: A Custodial Medical Unit (CMU) will be set up at police lockups to bring down the number of deaths in custody.
The pilot project will kick off at five centralised police lockups namely, Bandar Baru lockup in Penang, Jinjang (Kuala Lumpur), Shah Alam (Selangor), Indera Mahkota (Pahang) and Kepayan (Sabah).
Federal police management director Datuk Abd Rahim Jaafar said this initiative was a strategic collaboration with the Health Ministry.
“Each detainee is to be checked and verified by a doctor to be certain whether they are fit to be detained in the lockup or their condition needs immediate treatment at the hospital. This is in line with Rule 10 of the Lock-up Rules 1953,” he told a press conference at Bukit Aman, here, today.
Abd Rahim hopes the implementation of CMU would reduce inmate custodial death cases.
“One of the reasons IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) was established is due to deaths in custody cases.
“There were accusations that the inmate died because police tortured and abused them. Hence, we hope through doctors' examination before the suspects are held, this will stop untoward incidents from happening,” he said.
On a separate matter, he said his department would conduct campaigns to attract non-Bumiputera to join the force.
“Last year, we recruited 7,410 new officers. Of the total, 7,164 were Bumiputera, only 246 were non-Bumiputera. This year we will take 6,000 rank inspectors and below, and 4 per cent will be non-Bumiputeras. However, we realise that the applications from the non-Bumiputera are too little.
“Hence, we will be conducting campaigns along with the Special Branch, Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department and non-Bumiputera non-governmental organisations at vernacular schools and non-Bumiputera community areas to attract more from the group to join the force,” he said.