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Viral internet hashtag spells PR disaster for police force

Police officials have scrambled to counter the viral hashtag #PercumaLaporPolisi (no use going to the police) that has sent the law enforcement institution into one of its worst PR crises in recent years.

A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, October 13, 2021

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Viral internet hashtag spells PR disaster for police force

T

he National Police have struggled with a public relations (PR) problem for so long that the most recent two police chiefs—Gen. Tito Karnavian and the incumbent Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo—chose to make it a personal crusade to change the public perception of the force.

The negative image of the police was so baked into society that in the early 1990s the legendary metal band Rotor released a song called “Pluit Phobia” (Whistle Phobia) to describe the police’s tendency to instil a sense of fear rather than security. 

Nearly three decades after the song was released, and despite numerous efforts by Tito and Listyo to improve their image, the police are still facing the same problem.

In the past few days, police officials have scrambled to counter the viral hashtag #PercumaLaporPolisi (no use going to the police) that has sent the law enforcement institution into one of its worst PR crises in recent years.

The hashtag, which has set off a trend among internet users of telling stories of the bad experience they have had when dealing with the police, went viral after alternative media platform Project Multatuli published a story casting a bad light on the force.

The story follows a mother in Luwu Timur, South Sulawesi, who claimed to have reported her ex-husband to the local police for allegedly sexually abusing her children, but the police decided to drop her case citing a lack of evidence. 

 

Counter hashtags

The viral hashtag #PercumaLaporPolisi demonstrates that the public is not happy with the police performance, analysts have said.

“The Luwu Timur case raised by Project Multatuli is a just a trigger that set off the disappointment among the public,” Institute for Security and Strategic Studies analyst Bambang Rukminto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Bambang called on the police to use the viral hashtag as a rationale for overhauling their services to the public and to refrain from reacting defensively by introducing counter hashtags such as #PolriSesuaiProsedur [police work according to procedures] or #PolriTegasHumanis [police are assertive and humanist].

The counter-hashtags have been used by the official accounts of the police and also members of the force who are active on social media. The move has pitted the police against their critics on social media in a war of conflicting narratives.

In response to the critical hashtag, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Rusdi Hartono said that the police would follow up on any public reports it received but whether or not cases would go to prosecution depended on the availability of evidence.

“If the evidence for a report [from the public] is sufficient and the investigators do believe that a crime has taken place, then we will follow through with the investigation,” Rusdi said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

Tito, who now serves as the home minister, vowed to reform the police by rooting out the “culture of corruption, hedonism and consumptionism” when he took the job as the National Police chief. His successor, Listyo, is also seeking to change the negative image of the force by taking a more “humane” approach to law enforcement.

 

Reform falling short

The police have a lot to do change their image. The Indonesian Ombudsman reported that throughout 2020 it had received 699 complaints about the police and that it was only able to resolve about 115 of them.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), meanwhile, claimed that at least 12 high-profile cases reported by the public were not followed through by the authorities.

Kontras deputy coordinator Rivanlee Anandar said that the hashtag #PercumaLaporPolisi showed that the public's expectations of obtaining justice and a fair service from the police, whether it be a simple stolen goods report or violations by police officers, were far from satisfactory.

“The case in East Luwu is one among many similar cases that require public attention to receive a just settlement,” Rivanlee said in a statement on Monday.

He also said that the police often refused to proceed with a case, which led to undue delays. “This is because the police culture often disregards the interests of the plaintiffs, in addition to the fact that there is still no clear regulation on the limit on how long the police can hold off an investigation,” Rivanlee said.

He said that the hashtag #PercumaLaporPolisi and the preceding public criticisms of the police had shown that the attempts at reforming the police force fell short.

“The hashtag #PercumaLaporPolisi should be seen by the police and the government as part of the effort to reform the police, instead of regarding it as an attack against the police institution,” he said. (ahw)

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