Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Farouk Arnaz – Dozens of cases of abuse of power by police officers over the past two years is proof that the National Police has yet to implement thorough reform a decade after its separation from the military, NGOs said on Tuesday.

Indria Fernida, from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said over the past two years it had documented various cases of alleged abuse of power involving the police such as torture, wrongful arrests, persecution, wrongful shootings and the deaths of suspects during investigations.

In the 12 months preceding June 2009, 39 cases of police abuse of power were recorded, she said, and in the year since then just 19 cases. Indria said that while the number of cases had declined, there were still too many irregularities for a law-enforcement body.

"It's very clear to us that many police officers still do not understand the principles of human rights or how to implement [those principles] in their job," she said. "And the new issue now is the practice of corruption among police officers. It's more evidence of the failure to reform."

Erwin Usman, from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the police were still regularly involved in conflicts with farmers. He said Walhi had recorded 317 such cases since 2005.

"There have been 86 civilian victims as a result of the conflicts, with the latest being the farmers who were shot in Kuantan Singingi, Riau province," Erwin said. "The police always work hard in the interest of rich investors but not for the common people. This must be given special attention."

Papang Hidayat, head of research at Kontras, said the police needed to step up their reform effort to regain the public's trust.

He said that according to data from the Police College (PTIK), only 20 percent of the public trusted the police. "Through better reform, we hope the police can achieve its target of raising public trust to 60 percent."

In 2000, the late former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid separated the police from the military, ending a system that had been in place for 42 years.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Marwoto Soeto said they were grateful for the criticism because it would help to bring about improvements.

"I admit that we are not perfect, but the most important thing is we realize this and we keep changing and improving our performance," he said. "It takes time and it's not a magical process in which everything can become better overnight."

The police, Marwoto said, belong to the people. "We exist to serve and protect the people, and improvement is a never-ending process. Once again, thanks for the criticism, and please trust us that we always take firm action against any of our officers who commit a crime."