Reform Team Pushes for Kompolnas to Act as Judge in Police Ethics Case Trials

KPRP member Ahmad Dofiri stated that the position of the Indonesian National Police (Polri) remains under the President. He said that this status must be accompanied by strict oversight.

“First, earlier we discussed the institutional aspect regarding the position of Polri. That Polri remains positioned under the President. Therefore, with the note in that recommendation outcome, Kompolnas must be strengthened,” Dofiri told reporters in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, on Wednesday (6/4/2026).

Dofiri explained that so far, Kompolnas has not had much room or has only played a role in policy formulation and proposing the appointment of the National Police Chief. He said this strengthening would be done from the aspects of membership, composition, to authority.

According to Dofiri, KPRP proposes the abolition of ex-officio members so that Kompolnas becomes more independent. Kompolnas members in the future would be selected from civil society elements.

“In the future, it will be strengthened in terms of membership, then second in terms of the composition of the people sitting in Kompolnas, and third related to its duties and authority,” he explained.

Dofiri added that Kompolnas is proposed to be filled by various elements, for example, retired Polri personnel, senior advocates, academics, to community figures. Kompolnas is also proposed to have direct supervisory authority up to investigating ethics violations.

“Second, this is the most important. It can conduct investigations related to violations of the Polri code of ethics,” he said.

He continued that the ethics trial process would still be carried out by the Polri Code of Ethics Commission. Kompolnas’s authority, said Dofiri, can be involved if the case is deemed significant and attracts public attention.

“Well, but the one conducting the trial will still be from the existing Polri code of ethics team. However, if deemed necessary, if Kompolnas considers the case to be major, attracting public attention, and to ensure the code of ethics decision later, Kompolnas Commissioners or Members can sit as part of the judges in the Polri Code of Ethics Commission during its trial,” he added.

Dofiri said this Kompolnas recommendation is binding. He said Polri is obliged to implement the recommendation.

“And the recommendation from Kompolnas has executive force. So it means when recommending, it must be implemented. That’s roughly it. So not just a mere recommendation. That’s the oversight,” he said.

Member of the Police Reform Commission, Mahfud MD, added that this recommendation needs to be included in the revision of the Polri Law so that Kompolnas is truly independent.

“So Kompolnas with the proposed position must revise the Polri Law. So the Polri Law article, I don’t remember the article, just look it up yourself, Kompolnas is regulated in that article which will be revised so that Kompolnas will be stated as an institution, in my words, the law’s wording is up to them. An independent institution that becomes the internal supervisor of Polri, external supervisor of Polri funded by the State Budget,” said Mahfud.

Mahfud assessed that Kompolnas’s budget from the State Budget is important to maintain independence so that Kompolnas is not burdened by the institution it supervises.

“Because people might say, oh it’ll be funded by Polri itself, then it’ll be influenced again. Even though at that time it was explicitly written by friends that this is self-funded with the State Budget,” he said.