COMMENT | Nothing will be done about the police cartel

“The problem is that in most cases the agencies they go to in order to tell them about wrongdoing inside or outside the department respond along the lines of: 'If we did this (the prosecuted police officers), we would undermine the stability of society.' Or they say, 'We can’t afford a scandal. It would undermine public confidence in our police.' But what we’re seeing now is that it already has been undermined.”

– Frank Serpico

COMMENT | Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador, in one of his press conferences, said that he does not take any public criticism of him personally. That is good because as the top cop in the country, his attempts to downplay and handle "in house" the kind of corruption and malfeasance he is talking about is exactly the kind of "blue code of silence" he rails against.

It is not for the IGP of this country to “handle” a group of rogue cops out to topple him and in the process engage in possibly criminal behaviour. The fact that de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan publicly stated that these allegations should be handled “in house” is also the kind of political interference that the IGP has railed against before - but now seems to think is an acceptable outcome for rogue police officers whom he claims he wants off the force.

The IGP has a record of being tough on corrupt officers and this would be the ideal opportunity (since he knows their identities and their illicit activities) to reject that blue wall of silence.

Hamid says he knows who those “cartel” members are who are out to topple him. Do you think these "young" police officers do not have the backing of political power groups? How do they get away with their activities if not with the collusion of state or federal level power brokers?

Hamid has in past pressers made allegations of former senior officers, including former police chiefs, engaged in acts that destabilise the integrity of the police force. All this is a matter of public record. The public has a right to know what exactly is going on and the measures being taken to correct the systemic dysfunction in the state security apparatus. Unfortunately, the public knows, nothing will ever come of these allegations. We have a history of not doing anything and for handling things "in house".

Who could forget the duelling IGPs fiasco in...