City Police arrest middlemen

City Police arrest middlemen

JAKARTA (JP): Not a single unauthorized middleman could be seen at the vehicle document processing unit office at the City Police Headquarters yesterday.

During an operation on Wednesday, the military police arrested 78 middlemen, among them, two police sergeants and seven media correspondents. The correspondents were mostly from publications in North Sumatra that deal with the internal affairs of certain organizations.

All of them are accused of illegally operating as middlemen, who intervene in the processing of driving licenses, vehicle ownership documents and other related papers.

They normally collude with certain officers and charge customers additional costs ranging from Rp 10,000 (US$4.50) to Rp 50,000 per document.

Applicants processing their documents by themselves are generally forced to wait a long time and the middlemen, once given a bribe, usually speed up the process.

After the operation the entry gate for pedestrians was also closed to prevent other on-duty guards from entering and offering their "services". (bsr)