What’s so difficult about charging a cop with drink driving?

 

On June 8, a 35-year-old off-duty policeman was arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Policemen found their colleague driving against the flow of traffic at 4:10am and arrested him.

Cheras police chief Zam Halim Jamaluddin said an investigation paper had already been submitted to Bukit Aman’s legal department to determine further action.

Is it so difficult to decide what to do with a policeman caught for drink-driving?

Just charge him, as one would with ordinary road users, but make the punishment more severe. The policeman should have known better than to drink and drive. As someone who enforces the law, he has shown that he is a poor role model.

People will wonder why the Cheras police chief needed to hand over the investigation paper to Bukit Aman.

Once the drunk driver has been arrested the procedure of charging and making sure the charges stick is not rocket science. Even a primary school child knows this much.

What should also follow is that he is sacked for bringing shame to his profession and uniform, and not merely let off with just being banned from driving.

Perhaps the policeman only started drinking after suffering relationship problems or had issues at work, or he is depressed because of some other incident in his life. So he needs another sort of help; jailing and fining him may make things worse, especially if he has a family to support and he is the breadwinner.

If the drunk policeman had issues at work, did no one see that he was suffering? Did he consume alcohol to take away the pain?

If there are no extenuating circumstances to explain the policeman’s drink-driving charge, then what is there for Bukit Aman to decide? Why waste time when the decision should have been made in-house?

How does the police force expect the rakyat to respect them when they appear to be dragging their feet in this matter? They should be setting an example to all road users and Malaysians.

It is bizarre how the Malaysian authorities allow things to drag on and on, with the result that they are simply forgotten at the end because we excel in procrastinating.

Drink-driving is a killer but so is driving under the influence of drugs. In some countries, deaths from driving on drugs is more prevalent than deaths caused by drink-driving. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.