Jakarta – The centralized structure of the police force hampers efforts to build an effective professional law enforcement body, a researcher said in a discussion Friday.

Muradi, program manager of the Ridep Institute said centralization had caused at least three problems. "The police are uncreative, too dependent on structural command, and face budget problems," he said.

Muradi was speaking at a focus group discussion in which he presented Ridep's research on the application of community policing in Indonesia. He cited the police force's response to disasters as an example of its lack of creativity.

"Unlike the Indonesian Military, who were immediately present in affected areas, the Police need two or three days because they have to wait for their superior's instructions," Muradi said.

He also cited the dreadful performance of local police in handling the bloody conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi. "The conflict would not appear as a national issue if the local police were able to reduce the unrest," he said.

Muradi said the police force's dependence on structural command had created longer chains of command. "Can you imagine that a young officer working in Papua needs to get approval from Jakarta only to continue his study?" said Muradi, adding that bureaucracy had resulted in nepotism.

He said centralization had made the police strongly dependent on the budget from the central government.

"The regional administrations are reluctant to allocate part of their regional budgets for the police, because that is prohibited by regulation. The hesitation is also caused by the fact that the police only submit a budget report to the National Police," Muradi said.

In a decentralized system, the police would be obedient to regional policy, he said, and they would have to be responsible to the local authorities for their performance."The police need to submit their performance reports to both the National Police and the regional authority."

The National Police in a decentralized system would only be responsible for formulating general policy and strategy. "The police will then work closely with the regional authorities to implement policy and strategy," Muradi said.

The research by Ridep suggests the effectiveness of community policing in several countries depends on both the police force's service quality and cooperation among the police, community and local authorities.

The research recommends two models of community policing to be applied in Indonesia; the suburban and rural police and the community strategic police unit in urban areas.

"The first model is based on preventive efforts through guidance, counseling and campaigns," Muradi said. "While the second model is based on patrols and responds to communities' reports."

Also attending the discussion was Yundini, a lecturer from the College of Police Science (PTIK). She said the biggest challenge to public participation in community policing was the police force's image. "The police still present a terrifying face to the public," she said. (alf)