Sabah top cop vows to continue cracking down on corruption within the force

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police will continue to keep a close tab on corruption among its personnel with the state’s top cop promising to weed out “parasites” who stain the image of the force.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jauteh Dikun said that they investigated a total of 93 officers as well as rank-and-file personnel for various disciplinary offences including alleged corruption in 2023.

He said of the 93 disciplinary investigation papers opened, a total of 67 investigation papers were completed while another 26 were still under investigation.

“We have so far taken action against 55 cases and these actions include dismissal, demotion or freeze in promotions.

Some were issued warnings, fines, forfeiture of emoluments or salary reduction,” he added.

“The rest were given reprimands with no further action (NFA),” he said here.

Comm Jauteh said the Integrity and Standard Compliance Department has been taking action against policemen involved in disciplinary issues and the actions for serious cases included dismissal of officers and policemen.

“We don’t want to protect these officers and policemen who commit offences. (My advice) from now on, don’t do it, it’s wrong because these are parasites in the police force.

“Any officer and policemen from the rank and file who commits an offence will not be spared and we will take action either through criminal investigation papers or disciplinary investigation papers,” he told reporters.

On operations against illegal immigrants, Comm Jauteh said that they were in the process of gathering intelligence to carry out combat illegal immigrant problems in the state.

“We will carry out major operations with other agencies in the near future,” he said.

“We have identified 538 squatter colonies in Sabah. Most of these places are where most illegal immigrants are present,” he added.