After 13 years, police reform stagnant: Imparsial | The Jakarta Post

After 13 years, police reform stagnant: Imparsial | The Jakarta Post: "Thirteen years after the end of the New Order era, the police had failed to reform the institution due to weak supervision and lenient sanctions for criminal officers, Human rights group Imparsial said Sunday.
“The dynamic of the reformation era has apparently failed to contribute to forming a credible and professional police force. The National Police reform program has been merely cosmetic and not substantial,” Imparsial managing director Poengky Indarti said in a statement.
Imparsial addressed a number of police problems that can be seen as indication of the force’s failure to reform: Police brutality, involvement in illegal logging, involvement in judicial corruption and case brokerage, corruption, political non-neutrality, sexual harassment, violence against women and arbitrary detention."

Imparsial’s report said between 2005 and 2010 there were 135 cases of violence by police officers against civilians. There were 49 criminal cases involving police officers between 2002 and 2010, while during the same period there were 161 cases of arbitrary detention and treatment.
The NGO’s program director, Al Araf, said that both external and internal supervision of the police was lax, with officers at different levels tending to protect each other, causing impunity among unscrupulous police officers.
“The police’s internal affairs division instead serves as the place for ‘dirty’ officers to seek protection,” he said.
He also raised concerns about lenient punishment for police officers involved in crimes. “Some officers were just demoted, rather than dismissed from their posts,” Al Araf said.
The police had the slogan “to protect and serve the public” but it had been very far from reality, Poengky said.
Imparsial suggested several points of recommendation to improve the police reform program, including placing the police under a specific department, rather than under the Presidential office, to prevent political influence and allow for the establishment of a team to supervise case investigations.
It also urged the government to accelerate the completion of the amendment of the obsolete criminal code procedures that contained many loopholes which the police could abuse for their own interests.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said the police reform program had raised the force’s level of professionalism to its highest level ever. “We are now very transparent and open to any kind of input. If civil society finds any wrongdoings or mismanagement, please, inform us,” he said. --JP