Jakarta – Indonesian Police Watch (IPW) believes that the police recruitment and education system are to blame for the numerous cases of police brutality carried out against civilians.

"Police acts of arrogance and repression are related to its poor recruitment system and basic police education in this country," IPW chairman Neta S. Pane said in a press release on Wednesday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

He pointed out that within the first 15 days of 2012 alone, there had already been four civilians shot by police officers. IPW's records also showed that in 2011, there had been a total of 98 people shot by the police, 18 of whom ended up dying from their wounds.

Neta said that new police recruits were only educated for three months at the State Police School (SPN), which he said was far from enough time to prepare officers for their job.

"Even a beauty salon course takes six months. This means that the National Police education system is worse than the education system in beauty salons," he said.

The police, therefore developed a tendency to act arrogant to overcompensate for their lack of professional preparation and low intellectual competence, he said.

Neta said that he hoped for a better police education system which would improve officers' intellectuality, social awareness and anti-corruption mentality. (awd)