Jakarta – Indonesian Police Watch (IPW) revealed on Sunday that the number of police injured in 2015 had increased almost 40 percent, stating that the police had been injured in brawls, violent muggings, mass protests and attacks by football supporters.
IPW chairman Neta S Pane said that the number of police personnel injured in 2015 had reached 74, significantly higher than the 42 personnel injured the previous year.
"The number of police injured during crowd fights reached a total of 25 personnel, the largest number of injury cases," Neta said, adding that the crowd fight category included those cases involving only their own institution's personnel or those with military personnel.
In September, a brawl occurred between the police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Polewali Mandar regency, West Sulawesi, after a member of TNI had been killed by police at a motorbike racing circuit.
IPW also noted that throughout 2015, 18 police personnel had been killed, a figure lower than the 41 killed in 2014. "The causes of death were suicide [seven cases], shooting [four cases], accident [three cases] and so on," Neta said.
According to him, several of the cases had occurred in Jakarta, West Java and South Sulawesi. "Jakarta had 12 cases, while West Java and South Sulawesi had four cases each," Neta said.