Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The role of the National Police Commission should be strengthened to give it teeth when dealing with complaints about police misconduct, the body's chief said on Friday.
"We are very aware that its primary weakness is that it only can make recommendations. It has no authority to conduct investigations of cases involving police officers or act on investigation results," said Djoko, who is also the coordinating minister of political, legal and security affairs. "Both government bodies need to have a system that makes it much easier for anybody to lodge complaints of bad police behavior."
Djoko was speaking after meeting members of the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force.
Civil society activists have accused the commission, also known as Kompolnas, of being ineffective since it was established in 2005.
The day before, Djoko delivered recommendations to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono regarding alleged judicial mafia operating at the National Police.
"First, we think that case brokers should be eradicated, as it goes along with the government's commitment," Djoko said at the president's office.
The commission's last recommendation, he said, was for an evaluation of the police after a string of scandals over the past year, including indications that former top detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji had violated the police code of ethics, he said.
The recommendations were made following investigations into a young mid-ranking tax official who was found to have about Rp 25 billion ($2.75 million) in two accounts in his name and who is at the center of police bribery allegations.
The police have also been under heavy criticism for quickly tagging whistle-blower Susno a defamation suspect rather than probing his allegations that police officials had taken bribes to halt the investigation into tax official Gayus Tambunan.
When asked whether he had discussed the case with Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force members, Djoko acknowledged that it had come up, but only as part of broader talks on rooting out case brokers at the National Police headquarters.
He said Kompolnas and the task force agreed to let the National Police independently investigate the bribery allegations, as well as the defamation case against Susno.
Task force secretary Denny Indrayana said on Friday that complaints about police performance were second only to those received about the court system.
"There were 137 reports on courts, followed by 122 on police performance and 72 on the Attorney General's Office," he said. The rest of the reports were about the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] and the BPN [National Land Agency]."