Police Auditor Reveals Identity of Alleged Depok Firefighter Intimidator, Denies Police Involvement

Jakarta – Police Auditor Kombes Manang Soebeti, from the General Supervision Inspectorate (Itwasum) of the Indonesian National Police, has publicly revealed the identity of the alleged perpetrator who sent intimidating messages to Khairul Umam, a firefighter with Depok City’s Fire Service, after Umam created video content demonstrating helmet safety procedures.

Soebeti made this disclosure on his personal Instagram account @manangsoebeti_official on Thursday, 26 February 2026. Speaking to media on Saturday, 28 February 2026, Soebeti explained that he was releasing the suspect’s identity to prevent further accusations being levelled at the police.

“So that it’s clear and we’re not constantly blamed – ‘it’s the police, it’s the police, why would police send intimidating messages.’ I’m going to open the data,” Soebeti stated.

According to images posted by Soebeti, the alleged perpetrator is a male with the initials WG from Rancasari, Pangadangai Village, Subang Regency, West Java. The identity was established through profiling of the phone number used to send WhatsApp messages to Umam.

“Yes, profiling – there’s a lot of that on the web. Data like that is easy to obtain,” Soebeti explained.

Soebeti characterised the messages sent to Umam as harassment rather than genuine intimidation. He suggested the suspect was either acting out of boredom, was emotionally provoked, or was attempting to create division by appearing to threaten the firefighter.

“We can see this isn’t real intimidation; it’s just someone messing around or being emotionally provoked, or following the crowd, or possibly even trying to create division, making it seem like they’re threatening someone,” Soebeti said.

Soebeti further argued that true intimidation involves repeated, escalating actions. In this case, he noted, the firefighter received messages from only a single phone number.

“Real intimidation must be intense and repeated – someone harasses you repeatedly, visits you, sends you things, uses different phone numbers each time. That’s intimidation. But just one or two WhatsApp messages? Maybe it’s just one or two people deliberately trying to cause division, or perhaps someone looking for content or viral news,” Soebeti concluded.