Combating police corruption in Indonesia: cleansing the buaya (crocodile)

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain why police corruption is rampant in Indonesia by analysing its perceived extent, causes and anti-corruption measures.Design/methodology/approachThe paper relies on primary and secondary sources and survey data to analyse the perceived extent and causes of police corruption in Indonesia.FindingsPolice corruption is widespread in Indonesia because of the inadequate budget allocated to the police, police officers are paid low salaries and recruited and promoted on their ability to pay bribes instead of merit, corrupt police officers are not detected or punished and corrupt behaviour is tolerated by many Indonesians. Consequently, policy makers in Indonesia can only minimise police corruption if they have the political will and capacity to introduce appropriate reforms to address its five causes.Originality/valueThis paper will be useful to those scholars, policy makers and anti-corruption practitioners who are interested in learning about the extent and causes of police corruption in Indonesia and why efforts to curb it are ineffective.