Dress code not an issue in difficulties, emergencies – Selangor CPO

SHAH ALAM – While dressing appropriately is a government policy, people in distress are allowed to go to the police station to lodge a report when it is an emergency.

Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the police encourage people to wear properly but understand that it would be impossible to do so in certain circumstances.

“Dress code is a government policy that we must adhere to, but for people in difficulties, it is not an issue for them to come and lodge police reports.

“People go to the hospital and police station to seek help. Under certain circumstances, they are not in the situation to go back and change, and there is no issue of people stopping them, we are here to help,” he told Sinar Daily in a recent interview.

Hussein, however, said it could be up to the government officers’ discretion whether to let the people enter the premises.

He said this when asked to comment on certain highlighted cases where the public complained that they were stopped from entering the government’s premises due to how they dressed.

This sparked debate among the public about whether they would need to go home and change if they were in life and death situation, rape or assault victim, before they could seek help from the police or hospitals.

Recently, a woman shared that she was denied entry at a police station in Perak because she was told that her skirt was too short.

The woman resorted to using a car seat cushion cover that she put over her skirt to make it longer and fastened it with a jacket.

Earlier this year, a woman was denied entry into a hospital’s emergency room for wearing shorts while in another incident, a woman was also denied entry into an elevator at a city council building in Johor for wearing an ‘inappropriate’ outfit.

Last month, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh said the government would look into the internal regulations to address dress code issues for visitors to government departments.

He had said that the government would have to consider it very seriously, as it could create tension among the people.