Indonesia

AuthorGeorge Kurian
Pages483-488

Page 483

Official country name: Republic of Indonesia

Capital: Jakarta

Geographic description: Island chain along the equator in Southeast Asia, including some 3,000 islands, from small reefs to areas the size of France. Five large islands account for most of the area: Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua (formerly Irian Jaya)

Population: 241,973,879 (est. 2005)

LAW ENFORCEMENT
History

While under Dutch rule (from the seventeenth century until Japanese occupation in 1942), the principal police force was the Dutch Allgemeene Politie, which functioned as a federal police force. In Java and Sumatra, the police were administered by the Recomba. Other states had their own police forces. Following independence from Japan in 1945, in 1946 the Mobile Brigade was formed to disarm the remnants of the Japanese soldiery. In 1947 all these forces were unified into a national police system, now called the Indonesian National Police (POLRI).

Structure and Organization

A number of state organs, with overlapping jurisdictions and operations, are charged with law enforcement and security in Indonesia. These include the national police, ordinary and special military units, the Kommando Operasi Pemulihan dan Ketertiban, (KOPKAMTIB), and the State Intelligence Coordinating Agency. The national police and KOPKAMTIB, however, are the predominant law enforcement agencies.

POLRI is directed and controlled by the central government and is headquartered in Jakarta. Under the Armed Forces' Reorganization Act of 1969, POLRI was incorporated as the fourth branch of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia (Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia [ABRI]) but was removed from ABRI's authority in 1999 although it remains under the jurisdiction of the minister of defense. POLRI is estimated to have grown from 140,000 in 1980 to 188,582 in 2002. In the aftermath of the 1965 aborted Communist coup, when POLRI was found to have been heavily infiltrated by members of the Indonesian Communist Party, the police suffered a decline in influence that has persisted to this day.

POLRI's headquarters includes four main staff sections: Intelligence, Personnel, Logistics, and Plans. The commander of the police has the title of chief, as distinct from the other three military services, whose heads are called chiefs of staff. Structurally, the police

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are organized into seventeen districts (POLDA), reduced from twenty-one in early 1974; and four regional groupings consisting of Sumatra, Java and Madura, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. Districts are subdivided at the Kabupaten, or regency level, each of which has three subdivisions. The primary police unit is the block, which may be a single street or section of a kampong (village).

Each district, with its headquarters in a provincial capital, has police units assigned to it, their strength and composition varying according the size of the population, area, and other characteristics. These units are organized as city police forces or rural police forces. Although they work in conjunction with the local government, they are operationally under the command of the district police commander, who reports directly to the national police headquarters.

POLRI headquarters are divided into four echelons:

Top (the chief)

Staff (assistant chief and inspectorate)

Service (the secretariat and communications)

Executive (identification, personnel, stores, traffic, finance, intelligence, firearms, health, law, provost, research and development, and crime laboratory)

Office ranks and enlisted grades were standardized for all police units after 1969. Thus, police ranks and grades were made identical at all levels to those of the other branches of the military although designations differ in some respects, no class of warrant officers exists, and corporals are ranked in the private rather than the noncommissioned officer class. Each rank is distinguished by a different badge:

General: four stars under a crest

Lieutenant General: three stars under a crest

Major General: two stars under a crest

Brigadier General: one star under a crest

Colonel: three eagles

Lieutenant Colonel: two eagles

Major: one eagle

Captain: three bars

First Lieutenant: two bars

Second Lieutenant: one bar

Assistant Lieutenant I: two wavy bars

Assistant Lieutenant II: one wavy bar

Sergeant General: four gold chevrons

Chief Sergeant: three gold chevrons

Sergeant I: two gold chevrons

Sergeant II: one gold chevron

Corporal I: two brown chevrons

Corporal II: one brown chevron

Bhayangkara (Protector): two brown bars

Bhayangkara II: one brown bar

Pay and emoluments are generally comparable with those of the armed forces. Some police units operate revenue-producing commercial companies, just as the armed forces do. The Mobile Brigade, for example, operates a transportation company, a whitewash factory, and a variety of banking and agricultural enterprises. Part of the police budget is derived from the profits of these companies.

Police ethics and conduct are regulated by a basic police law and by...

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