The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Police celebrated its 61st anniversary Monday in the midst of calls from third parties for law enforcers to improve their performance despite having recently captured several wanted terrorists.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a speech read by National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara said the policing institution still needed a hefty dose of internal reform.
Makbul read the speech during a ceremony at the National Police Headquarters' Bhayangkara Field in South Jakarta, while National Police chief Gen. Sutanto led a ceremony in East Kalimantan.
Yudhoyono said the National Police needed to improve its performance in shoring up social order and security, as well as in coping with criminal cases that cause social unrest.
The President also said the police must uphold the law both professionally and proportionally, and become a modern and moral police force that could be loved by the people.
Makbul said the police force's professionalism should involve a proportional presence of police troops nationwide.
"At the moment, some regions, such as Ambon, East Kalimantan and Bali, that have one officer for every 300 people, have achieved the standard international ratio of one police officer for every 500 people," he said.
"But some other regions, especially on Java, have one officer for every 1,100 people. Nationally, the ratio is one per 800."
The National Police currently has some 350,000 officers throughout the country and is attempting to meet the standard international ratio of officers to citizens within the next four years.
Yudhoyono highlighted how proud he was of the police force for capturing several notable terror suspects, an achievement which received international recognition, and the force's firm action against illegal logging, illegal mining, illegal fishing and many forms of trafficking.
The President also stated the need for the police to cooperate with society to encourage community policing strategies that would enable people to solve problems in their own neighborhoods.
Criminologist Adrianus Meliala told The Jakarta Post that the police were performing well at a policing level, but lagged behind in managing itself as an institution.
These management problems, Adrianus said, involve database storage, financial enumeration, logistics, inventory and its outdated information technology system.
"If the management continues to behave like this, the policing system will be affected," he said.
"The police also need to improve their information technology system. Nothing can be done without a good IT system," he added.
He said the police force still managed itself in a military-minded way, just as when it was under the then Indonesian Armed Forces.
"The police anti-terror squad Special Detachment 88 is a good example of good police management," said Adrianus.
He added that Detachment 88 operates under an efficient logistical and budgetary system, whereas regional police offices operate under "confused" budgetary systems.
The only way the National Police can improve itself is by restructuring its management system, he said.
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