Abdi Ryanda Shakti, Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) says that there were at least 106 narcotics cases that ensnared 178 police officers over the last four years.
The data represents the results of Kontras monitoring over four years, namely from 2019 to 2022. The cases are spread across 25 provinces in Indonesia.
"There is a map of the distribution of narcotics related incidents linked with police, there were approximately 25 provinces [where there were cases], there were 106 incidents with 178 members of the national police involved", said Kontras Deputy Coordinator for Advocacy Tioria Pretty during a discussion at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) on March 29.
However the actual number of case could still grow because it is possible that there are other cases that have ensnared police officers that have not been exposed.
Pretty explained that out of the 178 perpetrators, the largest number of officers came from the district police (Polres), namely 107 officers, then the regional police (Polda) with 47 officers and the Sectoral Police (Polsek) with 24 officers who played different roles.
"Our second finding was that out of the 178 perpetrators, most of the police officers were users, 58 officers, 49 dealers, 18 sellers and so on. As I have presented here there were 13 people who were couriers, some possessed [narcotics] and some released narcotics suspects, there was also a narcotics security business", he said.
On the other hand, Pretty said that over the four years of monitoring, Kontras also found that the number of criminal act that ensnared police officers has continued to rise every year.
"[We found] that every year there was an increase in incidents of police officers being involved in narcotics, over these four years we found 106 incidents, in 2019 there were 21 incidents, in 2020 this rose to 26 incidents, in 2021 it rose to 27 incidents and in 2022 there were 32 incidents, so there is a rising trend", he explained.
With these findings, Kontras said it was not surprised by the recent case of a police general, namely Inspector General Teddy Minahasa, who used his authority in narcotics cases.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Dalam 4 Tahun, KontraS Temukan Ada 106 Kasus Narkoba yang Jerat 178 Anggota Polisi".]