The National Police have been making a very public push against corruption in its ranks recently, yesterday announcing that during a two-week crackdown they had caught 85 officers accepting bribes.
But one bust has captured the national media’s attention because it involved a police chief catching his own subordinate asking for a bribe.
Inspector General Djoko Prastowo, the chief of the South Sumatra Police, told the media that he disguised himself as a civilian while driving some time ago. He said that when he saw an officer on duty monitoring traffic, he deliberately committed a violation.
The officer, who remains unnamed, stopped Djoko and asked for “duit damai” (“peace money”, a local euphemism for bribe money). Djoko said he refused and instead asked to be ticketed as per the official procedure.
“The officer still insisted on duit damai, even though at the time I was pretending to ask for a ticket. I then asked him where his official order letter was, and he couldn’t produce it,” Djoko said, as quoted by Merdeka yesterday.
After feeling like he was being forced, Djoko then said he gave the officer his duit damai, before surprising the corrupt cop by revealing his real identity and arresting him.
It’s not yet known what sanctions this officer will face, but he probably could’ve avoided this whole situation if he had recognized his own boss.
As for Djoko, he said that he regrets that his subordinates are still soliciting bribes. He vows to carry out his own crackdown on bribery and other violations within his force.
“The president and the National Police chief have been sounding the drum [in the battle] against bribery. I too don’t want to remain silent against bribery, I will act against it,” he said.
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