CCTV at Jakarta Student Protest Site Goes Offline, Police Respond

Several CCTV cameras in the Sudirman and Bundaran HI area of Central Jakarta went offline during a demonstration on Friday (12/6). Polda Metro Jaya has responded to reports that the cameras were not functioning in the area. According to monitoring by CNNIndonesia.com on the Jakarta Smart City, Lewat Mana, ArcGis, and Molecool sites, cameras in the vicinity appeared offline from around 2 p.m. In response, Polda Metro Jaya Head of Public Relations Commissioner Budi Hermanto said he would coordinate with the Jakarta provincial government regarding the CCTV outage. “We will also communicate with the DKI Jakarta Communication and Information Office regarding the CCTV. That’s why we are communicating, because I am not the operator,” Budi said at Bundaran HI, Central Jakarta, on Friday (12/6). Budi also addressed reports of poor signal at the protest site. He attributed this to the density of people at the location. “So there is no jamming as stated. It is because of the density of personnel, including the public, that on average our signals are already difficult,” he said. As of 6:25 p.m. WIB, the crowd, mostly students, remained on Jalan MH Thamrin. They had initially intended to hold a demonstration at Bundaran HI but were blocked by joint security forces. Budi stated that his party had not received a notification letter from the University of Indonesia (UI) Student Executive Board (BEM) regarding the demonstration at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout. “As of 5:34 p.m. today, we have conducted checks at the Depok Police, the Polda Metro Jaya Intelligence Directorate, and the Central Jakarta Metro Police, and no letter has been received from BEM UI regarding the notification of expressing aspirations today. We emphasise that there has been no letter, or as of this second, there is no notification letter,” he said. Budi explained that based on Article 10 of Law Number 9 of 1998, a demonstration notification letter must be submitted at least 3x24 hours in advance. Within that timeframe, he said, the police would coordinate with field coordinators to prepare security measures.