BRIN Researcher Urges Police to Stop Using the Term 'Individuals' to Refer to Law-Breaking Officers
A senior researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Sarah Siregar, has urged the police to stop using the term ‘individuals’ to refer to police officers allegedly violating regulations.
Sarah stated that misconduct by police officers is the responsibility of the police force as an institution.
“The police should stop using the term ‘individuals’. The police represent the state and must be responsible as an institution,” Sarah said in a discussion entitled ‘The Tual Tragedy: An Alarm for Police Reform’, quoted from her statement on Thursday (26/2).
Sarah stated that the agenda for police reform has seemingly stalled. She added that this agenda has been discussed for almost 20 years.
According to her, the stagnation of police reform is due to the indicators that mark its progress being consistently marred by law-breaking and unprofessional police officers.
Meanwhile, the Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, stated that the violence committed by a number of Brimob (Mobile Brigade) officers recently is not just an individual problem, but a reflection of the police institution.
“Weak supervision and accountability of the police have led to a lack of culture of respecting the law and human rights,” said Usman.
Recently, various cases of violence by police officers that have resulted in deaths, including those of children, have been widely discussed.
One of them is the case of mistreatment of a student with the initials AT (14) to death by a member of the Brimob of the Maluku Police, Bripda Masias Siahaya (MS).
For his actions, MS was charged with Article 35 in conjunction with Article 14 of the amendment to Law No. 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection and Article 474 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code.
The incident began when a Brimob patrol conducted a routine activity using tactical vehicles in the Tual City and Southeast Maluku Regency areas on Thursday (19/2) early in the morning.
The patrol initially was in the Mangga Dua Complex, Langgur, until around 02:00 WIT, then moved to Fiditan Village, Tual City, after receiving reports from residents regarding alleged assaults in the Tete Pancing area.
While at the location, the suspect and a number of officers got out of the vehicle and carried out security.
About 10 minutes later, two motorcycles sped past from Ngadi towards Tete Pancing.
The Tual Police Chief, AKBP Whansi Des Asmoro, said that at that time the suspect swung a tactical helmet as a signal. However, the helmet hit the left temple of the victim AT (14) causing the victim to fall from the motorcycle in a prone position.
The victim was then rushed to the Karel Sadsuitubun Langgur Regional Hospital to receive medical treatment. However, at 13:00 WIT, the victim was declared dead.
(mnf/kid)