Survey reveals poor perception of police

JAKARTA (JP): Most respondents of a recent survey said they considered the police to be ill-behaved and corrupt, always putting money first when it comes to priorities in serving the public.

According to the survey, jointly conducted by the criminology department of University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences and Forum fortnightly magazine, over 70 percent of the 1,000 Jakarta-based respondents said that police officers refuse to handle cases properly without capital.

The survey, discussed in a two-day seminar concluded here yesterday, reveals that the respondents have learned that the police always hope for "gifts" from people needing their services.

Over two-thirds of the respondents said that police detectives often refuse to seriously handle cases reported by low-income people but promptly react to cases reported by the wealthy, or important figures.

Traffic police, they claim, always try to trump up charges against motorists in order to force them into giving the police money.

About half of the 1,000 respondents are aged between 21 and 30, with 54.2 percent of them having university educations, 43.1 percent are senior high school graduates and the remaining 2.7 percent graduates of junior high schools.

A total of 43.6 percent of them are employed by private firms, 18.8 percent self-employed, 14 percent state employees and the remaining 12.8 percent unemployed.

Only 0.9 percent of the respondents have never had to deal with the police.

About 70 percent of the respondents said that many police officers moonlight to earn extra money. This, apparently, has adversely affected their original duty -- to serve the public.

Two senior Jakarta police officers, who attended the seminar at the school's auditorium yesterday, accepted the accusations as fact.

"Most of the charges in the survey are correct," East Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Gories Mere told the meeting, attended by dozens of the university's lecturers and students.

"We have no excuse," he said.

Mere said the police have, however, pledged to make significant improvements, such as take strict measures against indisciplined or unscrupulous officers.

Bekasi Police Chief Lt. Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, said: "Some improvements on the part of the police should be taken but we also need public participation."

According to Alex, who has a PhD from an American university, some people who strongly criticize the police and their behavior would try their best to bribe a police officer to avoid criminal charges.

However, city police spokesman Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna expressed doubt about the validity of the survey, in particular about the qualifications of the respondents to represent the more than nine million Jakartans.

"During my 21-year career in the police force, I have never, ever done one single thing that the survey claims police do," Iman said in his office yesterday.

Criminologist Adrianus Meliala read the survey results at the seminar held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Police.

A similar list of questionnaires was also provided to 161 randomly-selected respondents in 10 big cities, stretching from Samarinda and Pontianak in Kalimantan, Manado and Ujungpandang in Sulawesi, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Bandung in Java, to Padang, Palembang and Pekanbaru in Sumatra.

A participant at the meeting urged the researchers to also carry out a similar study on the Armed Forces' other outfits.

"It's unfair if we only blame the police for violating the rules. Other forces should also be willing to be criticized," he said. (bsr)