JAKARTA, Legal Literacy — The working committee (Panja) for Police, Prosecutor's Office, and Court Reform of Commission III of the DPR held a public hearing (RDPU) on Thursday, January 8, 2026, inviting a number of experts to convey their views and recommendations. One of the speakers present was Professor Adrianus Eliasta Sembiring Meliala, Professor at the Department of Criminology, FISIP, University of Indonesia, who conveyed 10 important notes as material for police reform policy directions.

Notes by Prof. Adrianus Eliasta Sembiring Meliala

In front of Panja, Adrianus emphasized that the problem of police reform should not only be read as a technical-administrative issue, but also as a matter of institutional design and organizational culture. He assessed that the Police have so far been burdened with two characters that tend to be contradictory: on the one hand, functioning as protectors and comforters, but on the other hand, they must carry out criminal law enforcement which in practice often demands repressive and coercive actions. In that framework, Adrianus stated that one institution would find it difficult to consistently carry out two mandates of a “paradoxical” nature.

A number of proposals submitted by Adrianus ranged from organizational restructuring, state financing, to cultural improvement through meritocracy and supervision. The following is a summary in…