A criminologist has urged the police to come down hard on its men, including a police station chief (OCS) and his subordinates, after they were caught in a wild party at a police station in the Kajang district, yesterday.

Datuk Dr P. Sundramoorthy, an honorary associate professor (criminology) at the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, said the “shameful incident” was a massive breach of security, as some of the ‘partygoers’ were outsiders and were not part of the force.

In Tuesday’s incident, four police personnel and four women, aged between 21 and 37, were nabbed while singing karaoke and consuming alcohol and ketum juice in a dark room lit with rotating lights on the second floor of the police station, as reported by Berita Harian.

“The people who are supposed to protect and serve the community are the same ones blatantly breaking the law; even using the police station to entertain themselves,” said Sundramoorthy.

“The women were outsiders; that’s a massive breach of security. How do you know that these women are not connected to terror syndicates, or would not share their observations about the police station with others?”

Sundramoorthy was reminded of the two women – Indonesian Siti Aisyah, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Houng – who were linked to the assassination of North Korean Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at the KL International Airport 2 (klia2) in 2017. The murder, which saw the use of the lethal VX nerve agent, gripped the world.

“The police should not go soft on their personnel. In fact, they should be terminated, if found guilty. This should serve as an example to the others in the force.”

“The force is already suffering a trust deficit among the masses, and if no concrete action is taken, it will further erode the credibility of the force.”

Bukit Aman’s Integrity and Standards Compliance Department raided the police station at 6pm following a tip-off from the public. They seized a bottle of alcohol, five bottles of ketum juice, and a picture of one of the police personnel and one of the women involved, in an allegedly compromising position.

“There are many good men and women in blue who work diligently to uphold the integrity and values of the force. Such shameful actions by these rogue cops will only further destroy the image of the force.”

He added the outcome of the investigations into these errant police personnel was also important.

“The outcome of the investigations must be made public.”

He also hoped that this would not create any new Covid-19 infections or clusters.

“How do we know if these women had tested negative or positive (for Covid-19)? Hopefully, it won’t end up as a double whammy.

“It’s so shameful that this is happening,” he added.

This article first appeared on Twentytwo13.