Tangerang – Vigilantes here are increasingly regarded as more effective in curbing crime than the police.

Violent mobs have killed at least 42 criminals in the last nine months, while police turn a blind eye and even seem to applaud the bravery of residents who kill criminals.

Between January and early September this year, the Tangerang General Hospital morgue had received the bodies of 42 criminal suspects delivered from 15 police sub-precincts. Twelve of the 42 corpses could not be identified due to serious burns, said Mr Jaelani, a morgue assistant at the hospital. Not a single vigilante victim was delivered to the hospital last year, he added.

Mr Agus Mulyadi, a plant vendor who joined in beating up two criminals last month, said: "We're sick of criminals who do not hesitate to hurt their victims. Moreover, the criminals are usually lazy individuals who just want to enjoy their lives without working hard. We can no longer trust the police to settle these cases."

Since the vigilantes are regarded as effective at curbing crime, the police seem to have turned a blind eye and appear to applaud the bravery of residents who kill criminals. "We regret the action of residents who take the law into their own hands. But such vigilantes bring positive results to our crime-busting efforts," said Tangerang Police chief Affan Richwanto. "Unlike in the past, residents are now becoming braver at facing criminals. If you were a police officer, what would you do if you found an angry mob beating up a criminal?"

He called on public and religious figures to help prevent vigilantism, saying that Indonesians still respected and listened to them. "But the problem is that public figures are not able to monitor the vigilantes as very often they operate far from housing complexes," he said.

When asked whether the vigilantes are a result of the fact that people no longer trust the police, he said: "If you claim people have lost trust in the police, why are residents still willing to build police stations in their areas? Anger and a lack of legal awareness have prompted people to kill criminal suspects."

Most victims of the vigilante mobs are motorcycle thieves, robbers or burglars. Vigilantes will not be able to eradicate these kinds of crime, the police chief said. "As long as the economy is depressed, there will always be criminals,' he said.

But criminologist Erlangga Masdiana of the University of Indonesia said police should not just wash their hands off the rising prevalence of street justice, adding that in the long run, the police force must be reformed.