240 officers assigned to fight street crime

JAKARTA (JP): The City Police detectives unit has dispatched a team of 240 personnel, including plainclothes officers in four luxury Nissan Terrano vans, to various crime black spots to beat street crime.

The unit head, Col. Gories Mere, told reporters on Friday that each of the glossy black vans, for example, would be ridden in by four or five undercover armed officers.

"Besides patrolling along Jakarta's toll roads, including those linked to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the four cars will also function as bait because the criminals are eyeing expensive cars as their targets," Gories said.

He did not explain why the police detectives had to publicly announce their undercover operation.

The other personnel, Gories said, would be allotted to eight black spots in the city, such as densely-populated and crime- prone areas.

"We aim at money extortionists, pickpockets and street robbers," he said.

In line with standard operational procedure, Gories refused to name the areas.

But a reliable police source revealed that the eight vulnerable areas included junctions of Jl. Letjen Soeprapto in Cempaka Putih, Jembatan Lima on Jl. Gunung Sahari in Central Jakarta; the Tomang underpass and Jl. Jembatan Tiga in West Jakarta; Jl. Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta; and Jl. Pramuka and the Cawang interchange in East Jakarta.

According to officer Gories, a team of some 10 plainclothes and 20 uniformed officers from the Mobile Brigade unit would be assigned to each of the eight black spots.

"Other personnel will patrol around the capital," he added.

At the arrival gates of the Soekarno-Hatta international airport, the Jakarta Police has deployed plainclothes policewomen as bait in their campaign to arrest the street criminals, who often posed as taxi drivers to extort money from foreigners and well-off local women.

"Our policewomen are stationed at the arrival gates and wearing excessive jewelry and expensive clothes in order to attract the attention of the crooks.

The undercover cops must also be able to speak in broken Indonesian implying that they are spending more time abroad. This is only to give the impression that they are well-off people."

According to Gories, the operation was into its ninth day on Friday and police have already apprehended at least 100 people suspected of committing petty street crimes.

Earlier Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang disclosed that five of the arrested culprits were shot, three of whom died instantly at the scene in various incidents. (emf)