Bill will make police sole probe coordinators

JAKARTA (JP): A draft bill on police being deliberated in the House of Representatives will make the police the sole coordinators of criminal investigations in the country two observers said at a forum here Saturday.

Legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo of the University of Indonesia and police veteran Bambang Widodo said the move could make the police more professional.

"It's only fitting that the police are the sole coordinators of criminal investigations, though they should not necessarily be the only investigating institution," Harkristuti told an Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation forum.

Harkristuti said that within the country's criminal judicial system -- police, prosecutors, courts and prisons -- the police should be the "gatekeepers".

"It's almost impossible for a criminal case to proceed into the system without the police," she said, referring to the Criminal Code.

"Almost impossible here means that there are still provisions that allow other institutions to carry out investigations and submit their findings to the prosecution," she said.

Some non-police institutions can conduct their own investigations and submit evidence without consultation.

Harkristuti said the customs office had the right to investigate some criminal cases.

"Even if the police are not directly involved in an investigation, the police should at least be given the recorded data," she said.

Harkristuti said that one of the draft bill's inadequacies was that it did not clearly define whether the police or the prosecutors' office had the authority to initiate or conduct an investigation.

Both bodies have the right to conduct criminal investigations.

Only one article (13t) in the draft bill directly mentions the prosecutors' office, she said.

Another article (23) only touches on cooperation between the police and "elements within the criminal judicial system".

"The problem of police and prosecutors office (responsibility) is not new," Harkristuti said.

"The legislature must determine the respective functions and prerogatives of the police and prosecutors so that it doesn't trigger any kind of 'rivalry'," she said.

Harkristuti said the police should be given the authority to coordinate criminal investigations.

"However, being a coordinator in this case shouldn't be interpreted as taking over 'portions' from other institutions, but rather should be perceived as an administrative process," she said.

"Data recording and analysis would be easier if the police had all the data relating to crimes...this would in turn enable the police to plan better, criminal hot spots could be identified and the system would work better," she said.

Bambang, a lecturer at the Police Staff and Leaders School in Lembang, West Java, said the police force would be more independent if it were the sole coordinator of criminal investigations.

"People may question whether the police can carry out the task...The police must be made more professional, more clever, modernized," said Bambang.

Bambang, a two-decade veteran of the police force, hopes the draft bill will untangle the organization and management procedures for criminal investigations.

Experts believe that some existing regulations cause overlapping investigations and are not in accordance with the Criminal Code.

Two examples are Law No. 5/1983 on Exclusive Economic Zones and Law No. 9/1985 on Fisheries. (aan)