The Royal Malaysian Police was ranked the highest on the list of complaints among other Malaysian enforcement agencies for two consecutive years between 2018 and 2020.
Between 2015 and 2020, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia recorded 479 complaints about excessive use of force and abuse of power by the police. Among these complaints, there were instances of deaths in custody, involving three suspects in 2021.
Human rights group, Suara Rakyat Malaysia, has also raised concerns about the alleged excessive use of force and ill-treatment, as well as the lack of accountability and transparency. The group released a Human Rights Report which revealed 21 deaths in police custody recorded by the Criminal Investigation Unit on Deaths in Custody in 2022.
