LBH Jakarta Warns of Repressive Risks in Metro Jaya's Begal-Hunting Team

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) says the formation of the Begal-Hunting Team by the Metro Jaya Police could be repressive toward the public. The director of LBH Jakarta, Fadhil Alfathan, said the use of the term ‘begal hunter’ in the team’s name has a negative and frightening connotation. ‘If there is a Begal-Hunting Team, and with a frightening nuance, hunter and so on, we fear there could be potential bad impacts,’ Fadhil said in a telephone interview on Tuesday (19 May 2026).

‘We strongly suspect the Metro Jaya Police are conducting an operation to suppress street crime ahead of the Asian Games 2018, such as mugging and the like. We even obtained field findings that the number of victims reached 15 people died. This is what we fear will happen when this Begal-Hunting Team is formed,’ he added.

According to Fadhil, police duties should be limited to securing criminal suspects and collecting evidence. This, he continued, aligns with Police Regulation No. 8 of 2009 governing the use of firearms on the basis of proportionality, necessity, and legality. ‘The use of force, in particular firearms, must in essence be placed as a last resort, as a final alternative,’ he said.

Fadhil stressed that determining the fate of perpetrators, including legal sanctions, must go through the judicial process. He also noted that forming specialist units such as the Begal-Hunting Team is not new, but it does not address the root causes.

At present, the Metro Jaya Police are also still deploying pioneer patrol teams each night to target those involved in brawls. Yet cases of brawling and mugging continue to occur. According to Fadhil, this shows that security-focused approaches alone are not sufficient to address the problem at its roots. He believes the root causes of street crime relate to public welfare and infrastructure, thus requiring cross-sector collaboration.