Bogus policemen on the up and up

Bogus policemen on the up and up

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Crimes by bogus cops are on the rise again, with groups of men
passing themselves off as police making several "raids" on
civilians during the past few weeks, city police said.

On April 7, four people dressed in black jackets and brown
trousers and claiming to be police detectives robbed an Internet
cafe in Grogol, West Jakarta.

The robbers, two of whom were armed, held up eight customers
inside the cafe and took their belongings. One toted a rifle, the
other had a pistol, police said. They told their victims they
were officers from the narcotics division making a raid.

The men then abducted a customer, who police identified as a
doctor, Sotja, bundling him into a green Kijang minivan. The
robbers dropped Sotja in Kebon Nanas, East Jakarta, after taking
his cell phone and Rp 1 million (US$116) in cash, police said.

Also last week, three men claiming to be police robbed Ari
Wibowo, a 22-year-old music studio attendant in Joglo, West
Jakarta.

Ari was watching TV alone in the studio when the men took him
into their Kijang van and robbed him and the studio before
dropping him off at Mega Kebon Jeruk housing complex, also in
West Jakarta, police said.

Bogus police incidents, where criminals dressed in police gear
or passed themselves off as police, had been on the rise, with
six cases reported in the first half of April alone, police said.
The figure had jumped from March when only one case was reported.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo said on Tuesday so
far investigations had revealed more than one gang was behind the
incidents.

"They are not joined in one syndicate, this is the conclusion
of our investigation," he said.

Prasetyo said the availability of police uniforms and insignia
on the market made it easy for criminals to pass themselves off
as police.

"Uniform vendors are supposed to sell the uniforms only to
police officers who have to show their ID cards when purchasing
them," he said. "But the vendors are often only interested in
profit and therefore sell the uniforms to almost anybody."

Prasetyo said there were no regulations that put sanctions on
vendors selling police uniforms to the public.

Police also recorded two reported cases of bogus officers in
February. The criminals wore police uniforms and robbed motorists
after stopping them on the pretext of checking their documents.

In March, a man wearing a police uniform attacked two bus
drivers in Bekasi with a stick.

Police did not reveal any motive behind the beating and the
man is still at large.