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View all search resultsReform team pushes demilitarization of police amid brutality concerns
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Police officers march during a ceremony on July 1, 2024, to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the National Police at the National Monument (Monas) Square in Central Jakarta. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
T
he government-sanctioned police reform commission has proposed demilitarizing the work culture of the National Police as part of broader reforms, amid persistent cases of police brutality that have fueled public demands for systemic change within the institution.
President Prabowo Subianto received recommendations for police reform from the commission in a three-hour meeting at the Palace on Tuesday evening, following months of mounting public pressure over the commission’s perceived lack of progress since its establishment in November last year.
Among the recommendations, commission chair Jimly Asshiddiqie highlighted the need to “demilitarize the police’s work culture”, which was included in a dense, 10-volume-long report the commission gave to Prabowo.
Commission member Ahmad Dofiri, who is also the presidential adviser on public order affairs and police reform, said that “police culture” is part and parcel of the police reform.
“We provided specific and very rigid recommendations [to reform] police culture through the institutional aspect,” Dofiri told a press briefing on Tuesday after the meeting with Prabowo.
The recommendation came amid increasing criticisms from human rights groups for what they deemed as entrenched militaristic practices within the police institution that led to repeated cases of violence against civilians.
Prabowo established the reform commission shortly after a string of police brutality cases during the nationwide anti-government protests last August. One case involved the death of online motorcycle transportation driver Affan Kurniawan, who was run over by a police tactical vehicle while merely passing by the protest area in Jakarta.
