Police Updates on Facebook?

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Aug 18, 2010

Screenshot of the facebook posting (Source: Malay Mail)

Commenting on the Chief Police Officer of Selangor, Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, posting investigation initiatives on his Facebook profile.

The recent death of Permatang state assemblyman Datuk Abdul Aziz Mohd Noh, and his former personal assistant, Siti Rohana Ismat, though fascinating for the tantalizing possibilities its factual scenario allows for speculation is also interesting because news of it spread due to a posting by the Chief Police Officer of the Selangor State, Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, on his Facebook profile. It appeared that for a while Datuk Khalid was posting updates on the investigation.

A 3 August 2010 news report from Malaysiakini reported the following:

Khalid had initially denied on his Facebook page that Abdul Aziz was shot, calling it a rumour.

However, he Khalid issued another post on his Facebook page an hour later confirming that Abdul Aziz and his aide had indeed been shot.

“Please don’t speculate (on the case). Witnesses interviewed at the scene confirmed there were nobody else in the car,” wrote Khalid again on Facebook, at approximately 3.45pm.

In another Facebook posting at approximately 5.50pm, Khalid said that the preliminary autopsy report suggest that Abdul Aziz sustained two gunshot wounds while the aide sustained one.

“There are two bullets inside the chamber while there were three spent casings inside the chambers,” wrote Khalid.

However, at 7.15pm Khalid made a second correction in his Facebook. He said the woman had two gunshot wounds while Abdul Aziz had one.

The bodies were sent to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for post-mortem.

My concern is quite simple really: What the hell is the Chief Police Officer of Selangor broadcasting results of the investigation on his Facebook profile? Is this now a legitimate forum from which the general public can meaningfully seek updates on their respective cases? Was this just some cheap publicity stunt by Datuk Khalid to show how hip to technology he is? Or is this some insidious method to boost the number of his friends on his Facebook profile?

Surely there must be some standard operating procedure about how investigations are to be reported in the media. I am fairly certain that it contains nothing about Facebook updates.