OPTIMIZATION OF POLICE MEMBER CAREER MANAGEMENT BASED ON INTEGRITY IN IMPROVING GUIDANCE PROFESSIONALISM HUMAN RESOURCES (STUDY ON PEMATANGSIANTAR RESORT POLICE)

Abstract

Career management for members of the Indonesian National Police is not merely an administrative mechanism, but a strategicinstrument for fostering professionalism and safeguarding public trust. This article examines how career development for police personnel at the Pematangsiantar Police Resort can be optimized by placing integrity at its core rather than treating it as a mere formal requirement in performance evaluation. Using a juridical-empirical approach with a qualitative descriptive method, thestudy combines a review of police-related regulations with field observation of career-development practices. The findings indicate that patterns of transfer, promotion, and placement still tend to rely on seniority and structural proximity, leavingintegrity underutilized as a decisive factor in career decisions. This condition lowers the motivation of high-performing personnel who lack strong networks and creates opportunities for misconduct. The article proposes that optimizing integrity-based career management requires three pillars: transparency in the assessment system, strengthening internal oversight, and cultivating an organizational culture that upholds honesty as a professional identity, so that human resource development within the police produces personnel who are both technically competent and trustworthy to the public they serve.