VIVAnews - Being a police officer is a prominent occupation in a complex modern civilization. “He isn't only dealing with criminals and violations. His main duty is managing the people in everyday social life,“ a Judge in Boston, United States, Eliyah Adlow says in his book entitled Policemen and People.
Policemen cannot avoid people’s views on a daily basis because the way they carry out their tasks is perceived by individuals among the society. The consequences are that successful police works are considered normal while failures would lead to people’s disappointment.
In coping with corruption cases, it is police’s job to uncover corruptions committed by government officials and the people. But, as one of the officials, they could also be the subject of corruption cases. In this context, the formulation of corruptions in the law is actually shallower than the concept of police corruption.
A lot of deviance which occur while police were doing their job could be considered police corruptions. The examples would be conspiracy with illegal businessmen, torturing or setting up suspects into confessing something, giving protection to racketeer groups and work budget manipulations.
When working on corruption cases, the police face two sectors of attempts relating to reputations. One of the attempts is performing domestic preventive actions such as on illegal retributions, positional extortion and other police corruption cases. The police are also required to probe into corruption cases occurring in their jurisdiction.
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Evidences are the keys in investigation processes. The Penal Code has put high evidentiary standards because the consequence of crimes is imprisonment and death penalty.
The evidentiary standards are called beyond a reasonable doubt standard and the burden of proof and are surrendered to the prosecutors attorneys to prove the case. That is why investigations have to meet the high standards.
According to the discussion of evidences in the Penal Code, there are some of the terms that could have double meanings like “preliminary evidences”, “allegedly” and others. It is very important to understand the meanings because they define the investigations.
Regarding preliminary evidences, it might be useful to refer to similar concepts and definitions in the common law tradition. In common law, the term “allegedly” is known as “prima-facie” which means sufficient (adequate or decent) to establish a fact or rise a presumption unless disproved or rebutted.
The allegation would emerge in the first appearance or sight but would still be connected to the evidences or other information. Evidences would not be prima-facie until they establish a fact or refuse a consideration until a rebuttal is delivered by the opposing parties.
Sufficient preliminary evidences are also called sufficient evidences or satisfactory evidences in common law system. This means an evidence that is to satisfy an unprejudiced mind seeking the truth.
In the investigation of complicated cases like corruptions, it is difficult to see the suspects’ actions but the results, which are the suspects’ wealth, are clearly visible. They include luxurious homes and cars, loaded bank accounts and unaffordable lifestyles. They are known as circumstantial evidences.
In the discourse of evidences, several legal concepts and definitions are also required to be comprehended. For example, the probable cause which is the reasonable ground to suspect someone of committing a crime.
The probable cause is sparked by more than a mere suspicion but less than evidences that could support a lawsuit. The causes and possibilities should be explained to the suspects before the arrest or search and included in the warrant.
An evidence is preponderate if it is the greater of evidence, superior evidentiary weight that, though not sufficient to free the mind wholly from all reasonable doubt, is still sufficient to incline a fair and impartial mind to one side of the issue rather than the other.
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In dealing with the case involving two inactive KPK Chiefs, Bibit S Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, have the police gone through a legal process according to the investigation principles? The two suspects are accused of taking bribes and being involved in an alleged extortion case aside from authority misuse accusations.
Taking into account the statements in the media from various parties involved in the case, the preliminary evidences is the weak spot. The case still cannot be put under investigations. It is merely surveillance.
The police are standing on thin ice. If there is any wrong step taken, people would recall the stigma in their brains for years.
That is the reason why former Deputy Head of Indonesian Police operations in the 1990s, Insp. Gen. (Retiree) Kusparmono Irsan said being a police officer is a job with priceless merits and intolerable sins.
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The writer is a General (Retired), former Indonesian Police Chief
