New policing system wins over public

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

If it were not for the police officers in full uniform inside the building, people would think that they were inside a post office when stepping into the Mega Mall police station in Bekasi, West Java.

Detention, scowling faces and handcuffs have been replaced by easy-to-approach officers, promotional flyers on preventing drug trafficking, and consultation and meeting rooms to talk about problems in the neighborhood.

"We try to make this police station as friendly as possible for residents, who come to file reports or to renew documents. Not only that, we also try to make the station a place where residents can discuss crime prevention," Bekasi Police chief Sr. Comr. Edward Syah Pernong said on Wednesday.

The police station is one of three that have adopted Japan's community policing system (Koban) starting three years ago.

The program, sponsored by the Japanese government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), aims at demilitarizing the police force in Indonesia. The National Police were separated from the military in 1998.

Besides the Mega Mall police station, the system, known as the Police-Community Partnership Council (BKPM), has also been introduced in Pondok Ungu Mekar Sari.

JICA and Bekasi Police have already agreed to establish 11 similar police stations in the Bekasi municipality and regency.

An officer at the Mega Mall station, Chief Brig. Rusdi, said that in two hours he would be visiting at least five households and talked about how they felt about security in their neighborhood.

"We just want them to feel that we are around and ready to help. But sometimes many residents still wonder what a police officer is doing in their neighborhood," he said.

Rusdi's efforts, however, have paid off, as according to a 2005 survey conducted by AC Nielsen police performance and image improved significantly after they adopted the Koban system.

Some 55 percent of 1,619 respondents said that police performance was better or much better compared to a survey three years ago, in which only 49 percent expressed satisfaction with police performance.

Some 97 percent of respondents also feel that their area is safer, up from 92 percent in 2002, while 81 percent said that the crime rate in their area had decreased, a better figure compared to only 70 percent before the Koban system was implemented.

One of the Japanese trainers, Kazuyuki Fujizuka, 55, acknowledged the positive progress after adopting Koban system.

"Besides skills, police officers here have much better behavior compared to what I saw when I first came here. Several times I come to crime scenes, and I have seen that they are now more professional," he told The Jakarta Post.

Japan's Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Kiyohiko Toyama, who came to Bekasi to inspect the program, said that he would discuss the possibilities of extending the program to other areas in Indonesia as he saw that it had a good impact on the Bekasi Police.

"The project here is well known in Japan. The public really support the project. We will expand this project to other areas outside Bekasi. We will focus on training younger officers in community policing so that they can train their fellow officers to implement the ideas. So, no more Japanese officers will be needed," he told the Post.

Besides community policing, Japan also helps Bekasi Police with equipment and training.

Many cases, including a recent mutilation case and several murder cases, had been solved after the police applied the knowledge from the training, Edward said.