Despite a statement from the Jakarta Police that the number of crimes reported has declined, experts said Wednesday the police had not done better to protect the city.
The police announced Tuesday that the number of criminal cases in 2009 dropped by 10.05 percent compared to the previous year.
There were 55,400 crimes reported this year down from 61,600 last year.
The police also reported that they were only able to complete the investigation of 28,500 criminal cases down from 31,700 last year. City Police Chief Insp. Gen. Wahyono claimed the declining number of crimes reported meant that the police had performed better this year.
Iqrak Sulhin, a criminologist from the University of Indonesia, however said that the declining number of crimes reported might even show that the police did not work hard to combat crimes this year.
“Personally, I think the declining number showed that the police have been less active in launching operations to catch criminals in the city. Many crime cases, like drug abuse, are exposed only after the police raid crime sites,” said Iqrak.
Neta S. Pane from the Indonesian Police Watch agreed.
“The declining number may also show that the public chose not to report crimes to the police. My organization found many cases in which people were reluctant to report crimes because they believed it would be useless,” he added.
“Just think about the woman who recently burned a police car belonging to a two-star general because the police did not pay attention to her complaints. There might be many other depressed people like her,” Neta said, referring to the woman who burned a car in the National Police Headquarters on Monday.
Iqrak added that this year the public image of the city police took a nose-dive.
“There was the Bibit-Chandra case in which the police were believed to manipulate the evidence. There is also Williardi Wizard’s testimony that the police tried to set up the former Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] chairman Antasari Azhar,” he said.
Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah are two chairman deputies for KPK who were alleged to have received bribes but the charges were dropped. Williardi Wizard is a former South Jakarta Police chief who said that his superior ordered him to help frame Antasari.
“The police public image is at a low point compared to last year,” said Iqrak.
Neta said the public had suffered from unprofessional police action.
“There are so many public reports neglected and we can find police officers who received and asked for bribes everywhere.” he said.
“The police always said that they needed the help of the public to prevent crimes in the city due to lack of resources. However, if the public do not trust them, how can they cooperate with police officers?” he said.
While experts still cared enough to criticize the police, Sukanta, a motorcycle driver, did not have much hope in the police. He said he never felt safe working in Jakarta, no matter what the statistics said.
“I never experienced crime myself but I do not think Jakarta will ever be safe. We just have to watch against all the possibilities,” he said. (mrs)
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