Tougher recruitment seen as positive

Tougher recruitment seen as positive

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police's decision to tighten their recruitment
procedures following a fatal shooting incident involving two
officers is seen as a positive move to help avoid a similar
incident in the future, but some warn that bribery could
interfere with the tougher recruitment standard.

According to the new plan, recruitment procedures will among
others, consist of a more complicated psychological test for
candidates who wish to join the force and more frequent tests on
recruits and officers.

Chairman of non-governmental organization Police Watch Rashid
Lubis told The Jakarta Post over the weekend that a higher
standard of recruitment procedures was necessary to produce
better quality police officers.

However, Rashid warned of lingering practice of people bribing
recruitment officers as a short-cut to enter the force, and of
certain high-ranking officers giving recommendations to certain
candidates.

"If the candidates do not go through the standard screening
procedures, then we won't be able to find out their real quality
including their psychological conditions, thus opening the
possibility for the recurring of the Jombang incident," said
Rashid, referring to the incident last week where First Insp.
Sugeng Triyono, an administration staff officer with East Java's
Jombang Police shot Adj. Comr. Ibrahim Gani, head of the anti-
riot unit. Sugeng killed himself after firing two shots.

The police said the incident occurred because Sugeng was
depressed since working as an administration staff, compared to
his previous post as the chief of the lucrative traffic section.

Commenting on the shooting incident in Jombang, Rashid said
that the two officers were probably old "products" when the
recruitment system was fairly simple and prone to outside
intervention.

"I think the police are working to improve it. They've been
working together with the psychological department at the
University of Indonesia for the tests and we can see the results
in the next three or four years," Rashid said.

Meanwhile, First Adj. Insp. Moro Kuswantoro of Tanah Abang
sub-precinct said that he fully supported the National Police's
decision to conduct more frequent psychological tests to assess
the mental health condition of each officer.

"It will be good to know whether we're psychologically healthy
or not if the tests are conducted more often. We get tested
regularly once a year when we extend our gun licenses. If you
don't pass the test then you can't get your gun license," Moro
said.

However, Moro added that the regular once-a-year test only
applies in Jakarta and that he did not know about the conditions
in other regions in Indonesia.

Chief Brig. Purnomo said that psychological tests were
required by either the officers or by the superintendents, but
psychological tests alone could not tell the problems that an
officer faced outside his workplace.

"An officer is just a human being who can face trouble at home
with his family or his neighborhood and can be depressed with his
job as well.

"A test is good for monitoring but it can't eliminate or solve
those problems. So we still have to control ourselves so that the
Jombang incident will never happen again," Purnomo said.