End the Cult of “Individuals” and Evaluate Wrongful Arrest Practices

Yayang Nanda Budiman, SH

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02 May 2025 · 13:32 02 May 2025 13:32 WIB 6 minutes reading time: 6 minutes 74 read

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Wrongful arrest actions carried out by a number of law enforcement officers signal the urgency of reform

End the Cult of “Individuals” and Evaluate Wrongful Arrest Practices

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Table of Contents

Stop Hiding Behind “Individuals”
Reminding the Rules
Awaiting Evaluation

Legal Literacy - As clearly stated in the constitution, Indonesia is a state based on law, not a state of power, and not a state that forgives errors in the name of law. Consequently, every action and behavior of law enforcement officials must be in line with constitutional values and orient themselves to principles that reflect the rule of law by respecting and protecting the position of human rights.

Acts of wrongful arrest to extortion of confessions with violence committed by a number of law enforcement officials are not enough to be resolved with press conferences or mere clarifications simply because the cases and news have gone viral everywhere.

It is not without reason that if such old approaches or methods of resolution continue to be carried out, without being accompanied by internal improvement efforts to the application of strict sanctions for the perpetrators, it will increasingly potentially provide impunity and normalize similar actions to continue to recur.

Errors in making arrests do not merely concern procedural-formal defects that are violated, even more than that, it is also related to the position of human rights of a person suspected of committing a criminal act.

Referring to the records of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), from 2019 to 2024, there were at least 118 cases of wrongful arrests by the police.

Meanwhile, the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Jakarta noted that there were 25 cases of wrongful arrests throughout 2013 to 2022. These figures show that the problem is not only sporadic but also systemic and not accompanied by internal improvement efforts from the police.