Police perform poorly in detection rate test
Police perform poorly in detection rate test
Evi Mariani, Jakarta
The Police Watch group announced on Thursday that the Jakarta
Police's detection rate as regards crimes that had been reported
to them between July 2003 and May 2004 was only 19.3 percent out
of 20,904 cases, making a total of 4,033 that had been solved.
"The performance was much worse compared to the previous
period during which the city police managed to solve between 30
percent and 40 percent of the cases reported to them," Police
Watch chairman Rashid Lubis told The Jakarta Post.
Police Watch revealed that the South Jakarta Police precinct
received the most reports of crimes at 4,999 but only managed to
solve 16 percent, or 809 cases. Meanwhile, the Port Police
received the least number of reports, with only 76 cases, but
managed to solve 39 of these, or 51 percent.
The monitoring body pointed out that the Bekasi Police and
Depok Police had even lower detection rates, and only managed to
solve 11 percent of the cases brought to their notice by the
public.
Rashid explained that the reduction in detection rates was due
to a number of factors, including the general elections, which
had taken up a great deal of police time in providing security
and investigating election-related cases.
"Changes in the organizational structures of police forces
have also contributed to the declines that have taken place in
detection rates," he said.
The restructuring process started in July 2003 and was
completed in February of this year.
As a result of the restructuring at city police headquarters,
for example, a 60-detective unit under one commander has been
divided into three smaller units comprising 20 detectives each.
Critics said the new organizational structure had led to even
greater bureaucracy as detectives now needed more time to
coordinate as between the different units involved in handling
particular cases.
"The National Police must quickly reevaluate the
restructuring. The National Police chief, Gen. Da'i Bachtiar,
must identify the weaknesses that are inherent in the
restructuring that has been carried out, and make the necessary
corrections so that it won't hamper police work," Rashid said.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo argued that the
police are faced with three main problems in solving cases:
suspects managing to remain at large even though the police have
identified them, crime scenes having been tampered with, and lack
of evidence.
I-box
Cases handled by Jakarta Police
No. Precinct Reported Solved %
1. Jakarta Metropolitan Police 535 95 18
2. Central Jakarta Police 3,042 685 23
3. North Jakarta Police 2,991 635 21
4. West Jakarta Police 2,369 627 26
5. South Jakarta Police 4,999 809 16
6. East Jakarta Police 3,036 509 17
7. Tangerang Police 642 288 45
8. Port Police 76 39 51
9. Bekasi Police 670 75 11
10. Depok Police 2,544 271 11
Total 20,904 4,033 19
Source: The Jakarta Police