ASEAN police start data base

ASEAN police start data base

JAKARTA (JP): A working group of the ASEAN Police (ASEANAPOL)
began a three-day meeting yesterday to discuss the establishment
of a joint data base system to fight the rising trend of
organized crime.

Yesterday's meeting, the fourth held by the working group, was
to decide which company was to set up the system.

Bids from three companies -- IBM, Anderson Consulting and ST
Computer -- were received in a tender opened in Singapore last
month.

"We hope this meeting of the working group will be the final
one," Head of the National Police's Directorate of Operations
Maj. Gen. M.B. Hutagalung said.

Reminding the audience that organized crime in the region was
increasing, Hutagalung said, the data base would speed up the
exchange of information among ASEAN police forces in fighting
crimes in the region.

The system is planned to start operating early next year. The
first stage of network would cover ASEAN countries and would
eventually be developed to include other countries including
France, where the secretariat general of the International
Criminal Police Organization, Interpol, is located.

The proposal to establish a data base system among ASEAN
police forces was agreed upon during the 12th meeting of
ASEANAPOL in Brunei Darussalam in 1992.

The agreement was followed up by meetings of the ASEANAPOL
working group in the Philippines (1993), Thailand (1994) and
Jakarta (1995). (01)