Jakarta – Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) released on Friday a sobering report on the state of the National Police, just days away from its 66th anniversary, which falls on July 1.
The report showed that police behavior and accountability has been on a general decline over the past three years.
For instance, IPW reports an increasing number of police personnel dismissals, which it says is a reflection of worsening police behavior. IPW says that 429 police were dismissed in 2009. This number decreased to 294 in 2010 but jumped even higher in 2011 to 474.
"There have been 12,987 police personnel who have violated National Police code of conduct in 2012 thus far. However, we'll have to wait until December to find out how many of these violators will be dismissed," IPW chairman Neta S. Pane said on Friday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Neta said that some of the key problems of police conduct included the use of torture and intimidation by police personnel when dealing with issues.
Then there were also instances of violence including shootings and excessive force. In 2011, IPW says that police shot 97 innocent civilians. Of these, 19 were killed.
So far in 2012, there have been 18 cases of police brutality involving 34 of its officers. Eight of these cases were related to the misuse of weapons. Ten were torture cases.
Neta says that bad behavior on the part of the police has the effect of making people more violent and combative.
For instance, IPW reports that 65 police stations were vandalized and burned down in 2011, whereas 2010 saw only 20 reports of such incidences. In the first five months of 2012, IPW said that 28 police officers had been attacked.
If this trend of public-police conflicts were to continue, IPW says that the two sides could end up becoming sworn enemies. "All of this has to be stopped. The National Police elite and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government have to care about this grave situation," Neta said.
In order to help improve the police's image, IPW said that the National Police leadership should fire its deviant officers. "The National Police elite have to realize that now is not the time to blindly protect those among their ranks who are deviant. These deviants have to be fired," Neta said.
The reason why these violations of police standards occur, the IPW said, was because of the low level of awareness among those at the top of the police hierarchy of the situations facing those on the ground.
Adding to the problem was the National Police's swelling bureaucracy, which IPW notes includes 261 generals. What results is a lack of enforcement of internal controls, so that rule-breaking personnel do as they please and avoid the punishments that the IPW says they deserve.
On this point, the IPW pointed to an example in June where North Sumatra Police did urine samples of their ranks and found that 114 of their personnel had used drugs. However, these police weren't punished, but rather were quarantined.
"If the police discovered a civilian in that kind of scenario, the civilian would definitely have been firmly processed. This shows how the National Police is still discriminatory," Neta said.
"The government, the House of Representatives and the public have to build external watchdog institutions that prevent bad behavior in the police and help guide them along the path of reform.
"What is really needed to maximize the police's work performance is to strengthen the system of oversight and to better coordinate police personnel in the field," he said. (png)