PSM today said police officers implicated in the Durian Tunggal fatal shootings and other similar disputes during encounters could have “easily shown evidence” to the contrary if they had body camera footage.
In a statement, PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan urged the police to make public their standard operating procedures on the use of body cameras, amid rising disputes involving police conduct.
He said the move was necessary as body cameras were introduced in 2024, yet key questions surrounding their use remain unanswered.
“These include whether it is compulsory for police personnel to wear body cameras, whether any officers are exempted, how the footage can be accessed when disputes arise, and who monitors the recordings,” he said.
Arutchelvan added that there has been a pattern of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras failing to function during crucial moments, raising concerns over accountability and transparency.
“PSM urges the IGP to make this (SOP) public. The idea of body cameras was initially mooted to back up police claims on disputed issues,” he noted.
Shooting incidents
The Durian Tunggal incident on Nov 24 saw the police shoot and kill three men, aged between 24 and 29, after one of them allegedly attacked a police officer with a machete in an oil palm plantation.
Malacca police chief Dzulkhair Mukhtar had defended his team’s actions, alleging that the incident injured one of the officers, but lawyers representing the men’s families rejected the police’s version of events.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers recently reclassified the police investigation into the fatal shooting as a murder case.
However, no officers have been arrested so far, drawing flak from Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng, who urged the police to explain the inaction.
In May last year, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced the rollout and implementation of body cameras among law enforcement officers, nearly five years after the idea was again mooted by then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
At the time, Mahathir’s remarks followed conflicting versions of events in a shootout between police and three others in the early hours of Sept 14, 2019, in Batu Arang, Selangor. - FMT
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