Police hot on the trail of big money in autotheft cases

Evi Mariani The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Having a car stolen is a bad experience for most people, but reporting it to the police is almost as bad.

Hartono, 40, reported the theft of his car in November to the police. His car had been stolen the night before from the garage at his house in West Jakarta. A police report is required in order to claim on the loss from the insurance company.

"The police officers on duty asked me to pay Rp 5 million (US$555) to get the paperwork done quickly. Otherwise, I would have to go through all the procedures, which could take two months to complete," he told The Jakarta Post.

Some haggling followed, and Hartono and the police agreed on Rp 2.8 million.

And the paperwork has still not been completed.

Farid has a different story. He decided to go through all the set procedures following the theft of his Toyota Kijang minivan in September.

It took him two months of traipsing backwards and forwards to the Jakarta Police Headquarters, plus Rp 1.5 million, just to get two official letters: the loss report and an order to freeze the car registration number.

"I paid less than most people as a friend of mine knows some of the officers there, so they were kind enough to give me a discount," Farid said.

Indonesian Police Watch executive Rashid Lubis acknowledged that the non-governmental organization often received complaints about illicit charges for police services that were supposed to be free.

"The 'fee' for a motorcycle is usually between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1 million, just for the paperwork," he said.

For cars, he added, the police normally asked for at least Rp 5 million. "It could be higher if the stolen car is an expensive one."

This is just for a loss report from the criminal investigation department, he said.

"Having the registration number frozen by the traffic police also costs money," Lubis said. "If you ask the police to really try to find your stolen vehicle, they will usually ask for more money."

If an autotheft victim is lucky enough, he might actually get his vehicle back. At a price, of course.

"Usually, the price is about 25 percent of the value of the stolen car. For example, if your car is valued at Rp 100 million, the police will ask you for Rp 25 million to get the car back," he said.

The police often say that the money is necessary to cover the costs of the investigation and administration, he added.

But actually, Rashid explained, the money was simply another source of extra income for the police.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono dismissed the allegation, saying that the police never demanded bribes from autotheft victims.

"If there are any police officers who do that, please report them to the police's internal affairs unit so we can question them," he added.