Bukit Aman integrity and standards compliance department (JIPS) director Azri Ahmad said 799 were issued warnings, 256 were fined, 164 were dismissed, 122 had their emoluments forfeited, 32 were demoted, 16 had their salaries withheld and 15 faced salary cuts.

“Although the figure represents just 1% of the total number of police personnel in the country, efforts to address their conduct are ongoing.

“Punishment isn’t only based on court convictions, but also on things like being absent from duty, violating standard operating procedures and other offences,” Bernama quoted him as saying at an event in Ipoh.

Azri said the dismissal of police officers was not solely linked to corruption, narcotics, and commercial crimes, but also to issues involving integrity and governance.

Dismissals were carried out in accordance with the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993, he added.

Azri denied that most cases of police misconduct were handled based on reports or evidence uncovered by certain news portals.

“Reports from these portals are often baseless and mostly just accusations without any details of the complaint.

“We have investigated complaints based on these reports, but when they reached the next stage, the cases were dropped.

“From there, we could see that they were a waste of time and energy,” he said.

Azri witnessed the handover of duties for the Perak police chief. Pahang deputy police chief Noor Hisam Nordin has been appointed as the Perak police chief effective today.

Noor Hisam, 58, takes over from Perak deputy police chief Zulkafli Saariat, who has served as the acting Perak police chief since Nov 8 last year.