Bill will make police sole probe coordinators

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)