Indonesian National Police - Organization

Organization

Polri is a centralised national bureaucracy. As a national agency it has a large central headquarters in Jakarta (Markas Besar Polri or Mabes Polri). The regional police organisation parallels exactly the hierarchy of the Indonesian civic administration, with provincial police commands (Polisi Daerah or Polda) to cover provinces, district commands (Polisi Resor or Polres) for districts, sub-district commands (Polsek) and community police officers or Polmas to service individual villages.

There are confusing terminological differences between some police commands. This derives from certain normative features of Indonesian governance. Indonesian political culture elevates the capital district (ibukota propinsi) of a province from other districts in the same province, though all have the same functional powers. Similarly, the capital province of the country (Jakarta), enjoys special normative status over other provinces – though in practice all have the same governmental responsibilities. The Indonesian police structure continues this by creating a special command for the province of Jakarta (Polda Metro Jaya), and special commands for capital city districts and cities (Polisi Kota Besar or Poltabes). Nevertheless, all of Indonesia’s police district commands (whether they are a Polres or Poltabes) and all the provincial commands (whether it is the flagship Polda Metro Jaya or one of the other Poldas) have the same powers and duties.

As an additional complication, super large provinces like East, West and Central Java have intermediary coordinating commands (Polisi Wilayah or Polwil) designed to enhance coordination between provincial commands and districts (to illustrate, Polda Jawa Barat in West Java has no less than 29 district commands – a major challenge for command and control). However Polri has a stated commitment to dismantle these Polwil in the near future.

Internal police culture is doctrinaire and hierarchical, and the organisation reflects this. The design and duties of Poldas and Polres are determined by central edict. Current standing orders determine that all provincial police are divided into three streams A1 (Polda Metro Jaya), B1 (demographically large provinces like East, Central and West Java) and B2 (smaller provinces like Yogyakarta, or West Kalimantan). The structure of these Poldas is more or less the same, with each possessing: a directorate of detectives, narcotics, traffic police, intelligence, specialist operational units (such as Brimob – the paramilitary police strikeforce, water police, and other units), as well as support detachments like the provosts, Binamitra (social relations police), etc. What truly differentiates Poldas is their resource base. Within Polri a tripartite matrix is applied to allocate personnel, money and equipment. This matrix is based upon a provinces’ square area, population size and reported crime rate. The same matrix is also applied to divide resources between Polres. Turning to examine the Polres, the Polres is in essence the backbone of the Indonesian police – it bridges the purely operational units (Polsek), with the higher planning/strategic elements of the structure (the Polda). In the Indonesian police a Polres is termed the Komando Satuan Dasar (or Basic Unit of Command); this means that a Polres has substantial autonomy to implement its own activities and mount its own operations. Regarding the structure of a Polres, a Polres is in effect a scaled down version of a Polda. Below is a cross-section of an average B1 level Polres (discreetly termed Polres A), in the province of Yogyakarta. This data derives from a recent PhD dissertation. Polres A has fourteen separate detachments. Seven of these detachments can be described as support elements. These support elements consist of: an Operations Planning Section, a Community Policing Section, an Administration Section (providing human resource management, training coordination, etc.), a Telecommunications detachment (providing communications support), a Unit P3D (provosts - or the police who police the police), a Police Service Centre (for coordinating requests from the public), a Medical Support Group and the Polres Secretariat. Based on 2007 data, these support areas were staffed by 139 personnel. The largest support unit was the Polres Service Centre, with fifty one police. These seven support elements back up the work of Polres A’s seven other operational units (or Opsnal in Polri terminology) as well as the nineteen sub-district police precincts in this particular district.

The Opsnal and sub-district commands execute Polri’s operational tasks. Polres A has one Traffic Police Unit, one Vital/Strategic Object Protection Unit, one Police Patrol Unit, one Narcotics Investigation Unit, one Detective Unit, a special tourist protection taskforce and a Police Intelligence Unit. These detachments have a combined strength of 487 personnel. The largest numbers are in the patrol unit (178) and the traffic unit (143). Added to the Opsnal personnel at the Polres headquarters are 1288 other police in nineteen sub-district Polseks. In 2007 this gave Polres A a police-to-population ratio of around 1 police officer to 526 civilians. Thus the Polres has a relatively large number of personnel, split across a breadth of operational roles, with a teeth-to-tail ratio between operational versus support personnel that is surprisingly high.

The allocation of the budget in Polres A is also illuminating for determining where police priorities are. In 2007, Polres A had a planned budget of Rp.62.358 billion ($US 5,668,909). Of this Rp.56 billion or 90% was spent on wages and office expenses. Thus, as with most organisations, personnel costs absorb the lion’s share of resources. In terms of the operational budget some Rp.4 billion or 6% was spent on daily activities and special operations. The remaining 4% was divided between community policing, intelligence gathering and criminal investigation. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, resource shortages within the budget ensure little official money is directed to supporting operations.