RIGHTS OF VICTIMS OF CRIME (GETTING YOUR POLICE REPORT TO MOVE)
“Lost” by Phil May. London, Leadenhall Press, Limited (1876) sourced from University of California Libraries Archives.
Victims of crime complain to me that they feel helpless when the police do not update them on the progress of their case. Therefore, I write this so that you are better informed. Complainant or Pengadu refers to the person who lodged a police report concerning information of an offence. These victims complain that the police Investigating Officer (called the IO) is not doing anything about the case.
We should not rush to judgment or make assumptions about what the police are doing or not doing. Even if our assumption is the truth. The law has given you rights to pursue your case and obtain response from the police, using a simple method which has worked for me 100% of the time.
You need:
One (1) hardcopy letter. Sign it.
One (1) photocopy of the above letter. Ensure the police place the acknowledgment of receipt here.
Three or more phonecalls spaced over 2 months.
At least one physical trip to the Balai Polis (please see the discussion on pandemic scenario)
One or two e-mails.
Patience, faith and redha (roughly means accepting the progress and outcome of the case).
You need to engage with the police and the Prosecution to follow through this case. If you do not have the strength and courage to do so, or if you are traumatised, or you are incapable, you can get support and assistance. If you do not pursue this, the development of your case can take longer than it should. If left unattended, it can become a cold case, incomplete and buried in an ever-increasing pile of other incomplete investigation papers.
As a Complainant, you have the moral prerogative to pursue your case. If you leave it to the police only, it is like a farmer who plants his paddy crop and expects rice to materialize on the dinner table, by itself.
The IO is assigned many commitments and duties competing for their time and attention.
The entire process of a criminal investigation involves many parties and many laws in force. You are only the cause for the case. Your police report is like the car ignition that starts the engine of investigation in motion. But after you make your police report, the rest of the government machinery takes over. You then become one of the many other components in this machinery of justice.
At the same time, you do not own the case. On your own, you cannot force the case to be expedited or to be withdrawn. There are procedures and limits to what you can and cannot do. Therefore you are not in the driver’s seat. But you can receive information on the development of the case from the IO from time to time. Though you are not in full control of your case, it is important that you make it known to the police that you are interested in the case.
To encourage this great machine to move, please refer to Section 107A of the Criminal Procedure Code (Seksyen 107A Kanun Tatacara Jenayah atau Kanun Prosidur Jenayah) (which uses the term “informant” to refer to a Complainant). It only applies to investigations on a seizable offence (kesalahan boleh tangkap).
But do not be discouraged even if your case is not a seizable offence. Just pursue your case. As a whole, the police, the Prosecution and the courts are created to protect your rights and protect you from harm. I will write another time on what you can do if the IO informs that your case is NFA (No Further Action) or RTM (Referred to a Magistrate).
Here it is:
Know your rights and follow this provision. The IO is obliged to follow it because they enforce the law.
Please take note of the following stages:
1. 4 weeks from the date of your police report, you should write a request for a status report of the investigation. You can use the title, “Permohonan untuk mendapat Laporan Status Penyiasatan (Seksyen 107A Kanun Prosidur Jenayah)” but there is no fixed terminology — please insert the police report number and the name of the IO. Attach your police report. Dates are important to help their department track the case.
(a) Send your letter to the Officer in Charge of Police Station (known as OCS or Ketua Polis Balai), the same Police Station where you lodged your police report. There is an exception — if you lodged your police report in the “wrong station”, the police report system will register your report under the correct police station, which would be in a different location. So in such a scenario you should write and follow up with the correct police station as named in your police report.
(b) Depending on the district, please use physical hardcopy for this first stage. At the time of this writing, the country is still in the grip of the pandemic. Logically, it should be adequate for you to just send an e-mail to the OCS. However, I would still consider it more effective to serve the hardcopy. Don’t give them a reason to say “we did not receive it because we did not open our e-mail”. So use hardcopy, at least for the first letter. Keep the acknowledged copy and scan it. You may then e-mail that acknowledged copy to the Head of Criminal Investigation Division (Ketua Bahagian Siasatan Jenayah) of the police district in which the Police Station is located.
(c) Please note that a police district is different from our normal understanding of a district. This can be a bit confusing for places like Ampang or Sepang. The two are a match in states like Penang (when I last checked). When in doubt, check with the Police Station or their official website.
(d) You can of course write straight to the IO. But the law says write to the OCS first, so follow what the law says especially if you wish to rely on a right provided by law.
2. The OCS is supposed to reply in writing within 2 weeks on the status of the investigation into your police report.
(a) Usually instead of the OCS, the reply comes from the Head of Criminal Investigation Division of the same police district as the police station where you lodged your police report.
(b) The status of the investigation could be anything from “dalam tindakan”, “dalam siasatan”, to “tiada tindakan lanjut”, “NFA” (no further action) or even that a case has been referred to the court (“RTM” which stands for “Referred to Magistrate”), referred to another agency, or that charges have been filed.
(c) The reply has no fixed format, so even the format may appear like a menu with boxes lined up, and the IO just ticks the appropriate box. Or the reply may be detailed. It is almost always sparse with a one-liner.
3. Speak to the IO on the phone or in person to obtain the gist of this reply. Your rapport with the IO is very important, but you can hold him accountable only with something in writing. To those who do not want to send letters or e-mails, may I ask : Why should you not communicate in writing? Why should you give them a reason to say “I did not promise anything”?
4. If your case has gone to court (i.e. charges are filed), the IO may no longer be the most reliable / accurate source of information about the progress of the case. The Court and DPP would be the most reliable. More on that another day.
5. If the police reply that the investigation is still in progress, you may then follow up every month or so.
(a) Do not bombard them every week let alone every day. Unless you fear your life is in danger or under threat by the suspect or their family/gang/posse.
(b) If your line of communication with the IO is good, then you will not need to follow up so often— they may update you instead.
(c) When you write to the police, always address the IO’s immediate superior (usually the Ketua Bahagian Siastan Jenayah, but this designation depends on which division or agency is investigating) or otherwise keep him in the loop.
Kompleks Mahkamah Kuala Lumpur, at its unveiling in 2007 was said by the Star to be the world’s largest court complex.
5. If you get no reply to your request for a status report within those 2 weeks, or if you have received what looks like holding letters for months on end, then you should report to the Deputy Public Prosecutor (“DPP” or Timbalan Pendakwa Raya). In this report, you will complain to the DPP that the police are not responding to your request for status report. The DPPs are professional and will not turn a complainant away. However at this stage, they do not interact with Complainants directly.
6. Address your report to the State Director of Prosecution (PPN or Pengarah Pendakwaan Negeri) in charge of the same state. The PPN is a DPP — he or she is the chief DPP in command of all the DPPs in the state. You may write to the Attorney General’s Chambers Headquarters in Putrajaya, but I would reserve that only for situations where your report to the PPN does not produce the desired result. Putrajaya almost always gives instructions through the PPN anyway, so there could be more delay if you write to Putrajaya.
7. Upon receiving your report, the DPP would order the Officer in Charge of Police District (OCPD) to furnish the status report. This approach has never failed me.
8. In a practical sense, your “request for a status report” is a gentle and courteous message to tell the Investigation to get moving.
9. Ultimately, the final decision to charge or not to charge does not belong to the police, but it belongs to the Deputy Public Prosecutor. We will reserve that for a different write up. I hope this has been informative for you.
Here’s a Tip:
Let’s say you have obtained new information and offer it to the IO. But the IO ignores you.
My tip for you is, you can include in your report to the DPP (referred in my paragraph 6 above) the fact that you have new material but the IO does not want to receive it nor record a further statement from you. There is a chance that the DPP will pick up on this and instruct the IO to record your statement. The IO cannot ignore the DPP’s directions.
Further Discussion
Can anyone else follow up with the case besides the Complainant?
Generally, only a Complainant has the right to do this. If the Complainant is an officer of a company, any other relevant officer of the company may pursue this if the aforesaid Complainant has left the company. In such scenario, this other relevant officer should update the IO.
Suspects under investigation and witnesses (who are not a complainant) do not have the right to obtain the status of an investigation. The first time that a “suspect” has the right to receive your police report is when the Prosecution serves it as part of the pre-trial set of documents, often by the first or second mention date after charge.
Reporters and members of the media have limited access to the information on an ongoing information. Since the police force does have a corporate communications department, it is assumed they have SOPs for interactions with media. For that reason, if you have concerns that the media coverage affects your safety, you should notify the IO to do the needful. Or, in the right situation you may directly state your objection to the relevant media company.