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Rebranding the police will take more than new shirts
Pictures of taxi drivers running amok, as well as smashing vehicles, during their rally last Tuesday, quickly went viral on social media
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Pictures of taxi drivers running amok, as well as smashing vehicles, during their rally last Tuesday, quickly went viral on social media. The public also saw pictures of a Go-Jek (app-based motorcycle taxi) driver being mobbed and beaten up by a group of people.
There were other pictures of conventional taxi drivers blocking the inner-city toll road in front of the House of Representatives compound, causing traffic to grind to a standstill. While in separate incidents, some passengers were forced to get out of taxis.
Upon seeing those pictures on our gadgets, we all had the same question: 'Where are the police?'
Those incidents took place on the capital's major thoroughfares, not far from the Jakarta Police headquarters, the House compound and several business districts.
The protest had been planned beforehand. The public had been informed that there would be around 12,000 conventional transportation drivers joining the protests. The police had said they would deploy 6,000 personnel for the rally.
However, the chaos still happened and the public mocked the police for being unable to anticipate and prevent the violent acts. Why did the police fail to safeguard Jakarta on that day?
It has only been two months since the police won praise from the public for their quick reaction to the simultaneous bomb blasts on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, in front of the Sarinah department store, on Jan. 14.
At that time, the police earned a lot of credit ' despite losing members in the blasts ' for securing the capital in such a short time and helping to send a message to the world that Jakartans would not bow down to such threats.
The police's general crimes unit's 'Turn Back Crime' slogan became popular thanks to media exposure, although many are still not familiar with the English phrase. Pictures of police officers trying to tackle a group of terror suspects went viral and attracted a lot of public attention.
The campaign was initiated by international police agency Interpol. According to Interpol, Turn Back Crime is a global campaign to highlight the dangers of organized crime and its effects on our day-to-day lives. Using a variety of media channels, the campaign seeks to advise citizens on how to stay safe and encourages the public, businesses and governments to play a role in reducing the impact of crimes.
The Jakarta Police have been trying to popularize the Turn Back Crime slogan since last year by selling merchandise such as shirts, key chains and tumblers. Each shirt is priced at Rp 200,000 (US$15) and so far, around 10,000 shirts have been sold.
But being popular is not about the number of shirts sold.
It is about performance.
And taxpayers have every single right to demand that the police force ' as well as from other civil servants ' do a good job providing public services.
The police have been attempting to carry out internal reform, from improving driver's license issuance services to investigating criminal cases in a shorter time, especially high-profile cases.
However, the result of this reform is still far from satisfying. The police still receive criticism for failing to protect minority groups or guaranteeing freedom of speech and expression. There have been cases where events related to various issues ' from the left wing movement to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community ' have been forcibly dispersed by the police due to demands from particular groups.
The police as an institution are not free from corruption. The latest case of low-ranking officer Labora Sitorus ' who was sentenced to a 15-year jail term in 2014 by the Supreme Court for taking part in illegal logging, fuel hoarding and money laundering and repeatedly escaping from prison ' shows that the police still need to work much harder if they want to restore their image.
If the police want to rebrand themselves, they must realize that it is not just about promoting a slogan. It needs a marketing strategy in which a new name, slogan, symbol, design or combination thereof is created to help reshape their identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors or stakeholders. It is to shed their previous negative image.
In an earlier interview, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Fikri Angga Reksa said that the police needed to improve their performance to fix their image.
'If they do their job well, their image will be good,' he said.
Fikri also said the police had no reason to feel heroic about their actions because they were only doing their job. 'People are excited about their actions just because they rarely see the police do their job well,' he added.
As Jakartans welcome their new police chief Insp. Gen. Moechgiyarto, hopes are high that he will make a difference in the city. During his tenure as West Java Police chief, he promised to protect minority groups, in particular Ahmadis and Shiites. It is a new sign that minorities in Jakarta will receive proper protection by the authorities.
During Tuesday's violent protest, Moechgiyarto who was in Bandung for the West Java Police chief hand-over ceremony, rushed back to Jakarta via helicopter to deal with the situation.
There is always room for improvement, even for the police. And we hope Moechgiyarto will lead his force in the name of the greater good; to serve and protect the people.
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The writer is a managing editor at The Jakarta Post.
