In 2008, Prabakar, a Malaysian Indian, was beaten and scalded with boiled water under interrogation. Prabakar was accused with aiding a group of thugs to rob unsuspecting drivers in a parking area at Kuala Lumpur. Prabakar, following the violent treatment, reported the unfortunate occurrence to the police headquarters hoping for some justice.
In 2009, one Malaysian Indian, Kugan, died under the police custody with presumable cause of death was water in the lung. But, the family smelled something wrong, and when they requested for the right of the body, they found that there were a lot of bruises in the late Kugan's body which might be attributed to the death.
There are a lot of other cases too that involve police brutality in this country. There are two sides of this issue and I'm neither on any. One side says that the police are just doing their work. Without them, the criminals will still most probably walk around victimizing other people. Another side claims that violence and brutality are never the answer nor the way to obtain confession from the offenders. No matter what they do or did, they are still human.
We all have heard the concept of "good cop" and "bad cop" in interrogation. The "good cops" are usually calm and receptive of cooperation. They are more likely to offer positive outcome if the suspects confess or give any information that can lead to convicting. The "bad cops" use harshness and force, yell, and hit on things such as the table to create a fearful vibe in the interrogation room. A more brutal "bad cop" would resort to using violence on the suspects themselves. Research shows how likely it is for the second way or coercion to lead to false confession. Rather than solving the crime, the police would just catch the wrong guy and let the true offender run free in the society.
You see, being the "bad cops" does not really solve anything. It does not reduce the crime rates either. But, I am not siding on "good cops" here too, because "good cops" do not exactly yield desirable outcomes too. So, what can we do? I'd prefer to note the way police obtain evidence. There are a lot of ways to obtain evidence such as the statements from peers, statements from victims, materials searching, and of course, direct confessions from the suspects but the police are very much depending on confessions. This might be related to the fact that they want to close a case as soon as possible so their performance will be rated good. This leads to the discussion of the system the police work in. The system might only use the solving of crime cases to indicate performance while the process to solve them is not counted as such.
Training on pros and cons of every evidence obtainment should be held to create awareness among the police on the hazards of coercion in interrogations. The system might also be taught with thew idea that quality is better than the quantity, that leads to the question, is a case really solved when it is closed too quickly? There should be an effective unit of internal affair to investigate the police themselves and the cases they are working on.
These are just some brief and simple suggestions to reduce the use of "bad cops" strategy in police interrogation in this country. I hope that some extensive research will be done in emphasis of Malaysian context. I hope too that some measures will be taken soon to really reduce the crime rates in Malaysia.
4 comments:
How bout the case of police wrongly shooting people? the thing is, the police in Malaysia is perhaps, not properly trained? not all cops are bad, but there's quite a sufficient number of them who is problematic..
But the problem is not just here in our country, I think its the same for other countries as well.. You hear a lot of these cases of force confessions from all over..
I think it might be due to the fact that these bad cops got into the job just for the sake of having a job as well as 'extra power' they have over other people.. They're not doing it for justice, and that is to me, the main problem.. Same goes for teachers in public schools,some of them are in just bcoz they needed a job.. They have absolutely no passion for teaching and therefore the kids they thought know nothing else other than what is on their textbook..
Tapi our gov currently seems to be much better than before, most prolly coz they're afraid of losing the ppl's trust..Its getting harder to become a teacher now, and I hope it would be the same for cops..Proper training is seriously needed..
You're right, I totally agree. When you're doing a job half-heartedly, then this is surely the results. If your attitude is the money, and not the passion of doing your job, then I guess it'd reflect in their performance. Yes, training is very important. These policebrains need some serious sense-slapping.
I hate to say it but you're completely wrong in most instances. In an interrogation in the USA there's video cameras, audio recorders, and almost always a two way mirror in the room. If there is ANY evidence supporting that an officer used physical force to obtain a confession that confession would be thrown out in court, the officer would be fired and even if he was CLEARLY the perpetrator he could easily walk. No sources and no credentials, i bet you've seen WAY too many "made for t.v." movies, but have yet to see or been a part of an actual interrogation.
Did I ever talk, or imply in any way about US interrogation system?
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