Indonesia’s efforts to consolidate and strengthen the country’s democratic pro-cesses have been notable, with key institu-tions engaging in reform activities aimed at restoring and building public confidence. One of the most significant tenets of Indo-nesian democracy was the acknowledge-ment of civilian supremacy on internal se-curity matters. Since the separation of the Indonesian National Police (POLRI) from the Indonesian Military (TNI) in 1999, the POLRI has made genuine efforts to reform. Particularly, the concept of community policing (POLMAS) has formed the corner-stone of POLRI’s reform agenda, which is committed to become a professional, ac-countable and effective law enforcement institution serving the best interests of the Indonesian people. Community policing is understood as a people-centred approach that emphasizes respect for human rights and partnership with the community to-wards achieving common security and de-velopment objectives.
IOM’s Approach As a key partner of the Government of In-donesia (GoI), IOM supports since 2003 the POLRI in the implementation of its Commu-nity Policing national strategy. As a key out-come of IOM’s initial phase of support, Chief of Police (KAPOLRI) Regulations were adopted on the implementation of Com-munity Policing and Human Rights through-out POLRI functions. Currently, its interven-tion focus on the three provinces of Papua, Papua Barat and Maluku where it is recog-nized by the POLRI itself that more efforts are needed to increase public trust towards the police. Drawing on ten years of com-munity policing experience in Aceh and other provinces of Indonesia, IOM’s ap-proach is two-fold, focusing on (1) POLRI’s capacity building; and (2) Police-Community Engagement.
INP Capacity Building In view of supporting the POLRI to comply with its goal of ‘one Bhabinkamtibmas (Community Policing Officer) for one vil-
lage’, IOM provides extensive technical support to build POL-RI’s in-house capacity on community policing. Such a sup-port includes assisting the POLRI’s Education and Training Institution (Lemdikpol) and the Security Maintenance Divi-sion (Baharkam) to develop a national specialized training programme on Community Policing and Human Rights, and assisting province-level Police Offices (POLDA) in tailoring the training programme to the security context identified locally in the provinces. IOM’s capacity building support also involves facilitating training of middle-rank and frontline police officers on community policing through a strong train-ing-of-trainers approach that ensures sustainable in-house knowledge on community policing at all levels of the POLRI. Police officers are trained on the key principles of rights-based community policing, including: building sustainable rapport with local communities through empathetic commu-nication; understanding and mapping communities’ expecta-tions from law enforcement agents to maintain peace and order; and recognizing the available traditional dispute settlement mechanisms as potential conflict-resolution op-tions.
Police-Community Engagement By definition, community policing is a policing model that acknowledges communities as ‘active players’ able to influ-ence policing practices, rather than merely remaining the object of it. It underlines the need for equal partnership be-tween the police and the local community in resolving and overcoming social problems which threaten security and public order. As such and complementary to POLRI capacity building, IOM’s approach strongly emphasizes on communi-ty empowerment and police-community engagement. Rec-ognizing the role of traditional (adat) or faith-based leader-ship structures as main conduits for community outreach and mobilizing communities’ support towards societal is-sues, IOM works through the channel of adat and/or faith-based institutions to educate communities on the concept of community policing and facilitate socialization activities that can provide opportunities for the local police and communi-ty members to interact together and build trust, thus help-ing to create the needed environment conducive for the effective realization of community policing on the ground. To further support police-community engagement, IOM also helps to establish Community Policing Forum (CPFs) at prov-ince, district, sub-district and village levels, and assists some of the village-level CPFs to strategize their community polic-ing intervention that is reflective of all parties’ concerns,
capacities and expectations. In the interest of making com-munity policing more gender responsive, IOM also seek to engage with partners that can particularly mobilize the par-ticipation of female community members, as a means to voice out their particular vulnerability to violence or discrim-inating practices, while tapping their recognized potential role as agents for peace or reconciliation within their respec-tive communities.
Past and Current Donors: The Dutch Government
European Union
Factsheet
The POLRI reform put forward the role and function of police in society to guide and protect the people. The police figure is expected to appease, pro-tect and become a friendly face in dealing with security issues and turmoil in the community.
