Jakarta – Head of Baharkam Polri, Komjen Pol Fadil Imran said that only three National Police Chiefs had prioritized policing duties to prevent crime in Indonesia. Currently, he said, the police still tend to enforce the law.
The three Kapolri referred to by Fadil are General (ret) Timur Pradopo, General (ret) Sutarman, and General (ret) Tito Karnavian. The three generals had served as Kapolda Metro Jaya, until finally they were appointed as Kapolri.
“Trails of crime prevention practices can be seen when General Timur Pradopo, General Sutarman to General Prof. Tito Karnavian served as Kapolda Metro Jaya and then served as Kapolri,” said Fadil quoted from the Youtube College of Police Science (STIK) on Friday, (23/6) yesterday.
According to him, crime prevention is a concept in policing that is actually familiar to the police. However, the police tend to emphasize the function of law enforcement rather than the function of maintaining security and order.
In fact, continued Fadil, there are legal instruments that have been mandated and good practices that are oriented towards crime prevention have been carried out. Actually, he said, the pillars of crime prevention can be seen in Article 19 and the elucidation of Law Number 2 of 2002 concerning the Indonesian National Police.
“That, preventive actions are still prioritized through the development of a preventive principle and this has become the principle of the general obligation of the police, namely to maintain security and public order. This (prevention) concept is often ignored or at least secondary in policing,” he explained.
The former Kapolda Metro Jaya said this condition can be seen from the organizational structure and budget policies, including the placement of personnel at all levels which tend to function as elements of law enforcement.
As an illustration, the number of Bhabinkamtibmas personnel is only 8 percent of the total number of Polri personnel. Currently, the number of Polri members is 460 thousand personnel. Of that number, only 8 percent or the equivalent of 39,192 Bhabinkamtibmas personnel.
“This confirms that policing activities are carried out not to be directed at crime prevention,” he explained.
In addition, Fadil also described a number of classic literature on police functions entitled Policing a Free Society, which was written by Herman Goldstein in 1977. It was said in the literature that actually the nuances of crime prevention were very strong within the police.
In the article, said Fadil, the police’s functions include preventing and controlling behavior that is generally recognized as a form of threat to life and property; identify problems that are considered to have the potential to become serious threats to individuals, citizens, the police, or the government.
“Creating and maintaining a sense of security within the community; resolve conflicts, between individuals, between groups, or individuals with the government,” explained this three-star general who graduated from the 1991 Bhara Daksa Battalion of the Police Academy.
In fact, he continued, if you calculate the costs and benefits of crime prevention, the costs for preventing crime are much lower than the costs for enforcing the law. Then, the gains from preventing crime tend to be much higher than the gains from enforcing the law.
“However, crime prevention efforts require the involvement of many resources and actors in society, which means that crime prevention cannot be carried out alone by a stakeholder,” he explained.
“Crime prevention is not a difficult thing to practice, when the practice of crime prevention is combined with various methods, methods and models,” added Komjen Pol Fadil whose personality is shaded by the zodiac sign Leo. Bembo
