Jimly: Prabowo to Limit Police Positions Outside Polri
The National Police Reform Acceleration Commission has proposed limiting positions for police officers outside the structure of the Indonesian National Police. Chairman of the National Police Reform Commission, Jimly Asshiddiqie, stated that President Prabowo Subianto has approved the proposal.
The National Police Reform Commission conveyed the proposal to Prabowo during a discussion at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, 5 May 2026. “The President has decided that specific positions (that police can hold) must be determined limitatively. So not like now, with no restrictions,” Jimly said after the meeting.
According to Jimly, police positions will henceforth be limited in the same way as military positions regulated under the Indonesian National Armed Forces Law or TNI Law. The limitation on police positions, he said, will be included in government regulations or laws.
Jimly conveyed that Law Number 2 of 2002 on the National Police is likely to be revised to align with the recommendations from the National Police Reform Acceleration Commission.
“It has been decided that in that law, the preparation process will be handed over, and there is even now a draft law ready to be discussed in the DPR, where these new points from the Reform Commission will be inserted,” he said.
The National Police Reform Acceleration Commission was formed following calls to improve the police institution after mass demonstrations at the end of August 2025. Various groups assessed that the police had abused their authority in handling the protests.
The National Police Reform Commission completed its recommendations in February 2026. However, the commission only met Prabowo at the beginning of May. The recommendations for improving the police institution are the result of the Commission’s study over about three months.
The demonstrations resulted in ten deaths, including online motorcycle taxi driver Affan Kurniawan, who was run over by a tactical vehicle from the Police Mobile Brigade on Pejompongan Road, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, 28 August 2025.
When meeting with several civil society figures from the Nurani Bangsa Movement in September 2025, Prabowo expressed his willingness to reform the National Police. Prabowo then formed the police reform commission one month later.