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Police brutality: Fundamental problems in the institution

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Jakarta Post - December 11, 2024

Andrie Yunus and Dimas Bagus Arya – Indonesians have recently been shocked by a number of shootings involving police personnel. A police officer has been named a suspect for shooting and killing a 17-year-old high school student in Semarang, Central Java, in the early hours on Nov. 24.

On the same day a farmer, who was part of a protest against a palm oil company, was shot and killed after being accused of theft by police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel in West Bangka, Bangka Belitung Islands.

A few days earlier, the West Sumatra Police arrested a police officer on a premeditated murder charge after he shot dead a fellow officer in a case allegedly linked to an illegal mining operation in the province.

Unfortunately, these three incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. The Indonesian people have seen many cases of violence involving police officers.

We can trace the roots of these patterns of violence and coercive measures to three main factors: the legacy of the culture of violence, lack of supervision and accountability and a silo mentality among law enforcement agencies.

During the Reform Era, the police were removed from the then Armed Forces (ABRI) and reborn as a new civil institution. However, along the way, the culture and practice of militarism did not erode, it was perpetuated.

According to United States criminal justice expert David Weiss, as long as the police are placed in a military structure, biases in duties and functions will occur. Soldiers who patrol the battlefield with the intent to kill are distinct from police officers who are tasked with protecting and serving civilians. The slow process of assimilation and demilitarization have stumped the Indonesian police in responding to civilian needs, and often cause tension in social relations with the community.

Efforts to create a police system that is more oriented toward civil supremacy were the start of a journey toward reform in National Police. Beginning with a revision of the Police Law, which resulted in Law No. 2/2002, outlining the main duties and functions of the police to be more relevant to civilians.

According to the law, the role of the police is focused on three aspects, namely law enforcement, maintaining order and serving the public.

The process of implementing these functions should have also emphasized ethics, namely state ethics, institutional ethics, community ethics and personal ethics. In the context of state ethics, the police as an institution have a responsibility for maintaining national security and order. However, it is often misused for certain interests and political motives.

According to Bambang Widodo Umar, an expert on the police, the police tend to engage in the political sphere by monopolizing force and using it as tool for political domination and using legal power as a political tool and participating in the dark side of the state domination system, where the police are constructed to indirectly participate in leading political consolidation.

The work program set by the National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, called "Presisi" (an acronym for Predictive, Responsible and Transparency with Justice) is often not in sync with the implementation of police duties in the field.

From July 2023 to June 2024, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recorded 645 incidents of violence committed by police officers, comprising of 464 shooting incidents, 52 cases of mistreatment, 37 cases of torture, 47 incidents of forced disbandment, 37 acts of sexual violence and 35 extrajudicial killings. These numbers mean that police officers are persistently showing a coercive military character, which is certainly incompatible with the police's role in a modern democratic country.

Police Chief Regulation No. 1/2009 outlines the principles of the use of force in the police, imposing restrictions based on legality, necessity, proportionality, general obligations, prevention and reasonable cause. However, this preventive regulation is useless if there is no moral capability and code of honor on the personnel level.

Various cases involving violence by high-ranking officers show that there is a leadership crisis within the institution. In addition, criminal, immoral and serious ethical cases that involve lower-ranking officers also show that there are serious problems in supervision.

The educational paradigm in the National Police emphasizes the process of value enculturation, discipline and moral ethos, and institutional value indoctrination in the development of identity, quality and capability among police officers.

However, as we can see, police officers spend little time on education and training. For example, training at non-commissioned officer (bintara) and private (tamtama) levels are for five to seven months only.

Acts of violence by police officers can be seen as the outcome of inadequate initial education and training. Not to mention that during the training, teaching on law and human rights seems to get the smallest portion of time.

According to senior journalist Farouk Arnaz, officers who want to be promoted and stationed in strategic positions must submit a number of "tributes" or bribes, either to the selection committee or certain high-ranking officials. And, for those who study at the police science college, there is a culture of nyoto, a term that describes the act of buying and selling academic marks ??with the aim of getting the best ranking when graduating.

The recruitment process and career development play a fundamental role in the process of enculturation of values, discipline and moral ethos, as well as indoctrination of values within the institution. Important steps on these processes need to be taken seriously for progressing the reform of the police.

[Dimas Bagus Arya is a coordinator at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras). Andrie Yunus is a researcher and lawyer at Kontras.]

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2024/12/11/police-brutality-fundamental-problems-in-the-institution.htm

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