Crimes on public buses on the rise

Crimes on public buses on the rise

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta Police have said that their intensified patrols and
monitoring of rising street crime might have moved the crime hot
spots to beyond the patrol's coverage, including on board public
transportation.

Data compiled by the police's operational and control division
shows that the number of crimes committed on public
transportation is on the rise. During January and February alone
there were 18 mugging cases targeting passengers of buses, taxis
and minivans.

Earlier, city police detective chief Sr. Comr. Andi Chaeruddin
said that street crimes were the second most common crime in the
city after drug-related crimes.

Given the circumstances, according to city police spokesman
Sr. Comr. Prasetyo, the force is now designing a mechanism which
can effectively be used by the victims or the drivers of public
transportation to alert the patrolling police.

"What prevents the police from assisting victims who are
robbed on board buses, despite the emergency service we provide,
is that we always get the information too late. Moreover, not all
victims are willing to make a report," Prasetyo told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.

As a solution, he said, the police are now placing
plainclothes intelligence officers or detectives on public
transportation vehicles along crime-prone routes.

Recently, the police have augmented their fleet of patrol cars
with 304 of the new Kia Carens patrol cars plus 60 sedans and
Kijang minivans. Of those vehicles, 222 are equipped with a two-
way communication system, while 100 of them utilize a Global
Positioning System (GPS) device which enables the police
computers to monitor the movements of each of the patrol cars.

According to Syahri Ramadan, a GPS technician who works for
the city police, the planned installation of the device in all
the patrol cars, numbering 500, would be completed in the next
two months. The installation has been done in stages since July
2002 because the system is still under trial.

The police have also installed surveillance cameras in several
critical sites, including the compound of the House of
Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly in Senayan,
Central Jakarta, and the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, which
are popular sites for demonstrations.

The patrol is part of the police's 911 emergency assistance
which residents can access through toll-free number 112,
established to compensate for the shortage of policemen in the
city. Currently, the ratio between police personnel and residents
is 1:800, a far cry from the ideal ratio of 1:400.

All police on patrol are obliged to report the situation in
the area they cover from time to time and their reports are aired
by private radio station FM 91.1 KHz Suara Metro.

Not only that, residents are also allowed to send information
or complaints to the city police chief via SMS to number
0811822777 which is held by the personal assistant of the city
police chief.

Prasetyo said that the services would not be effective unless
the public used them effectively.

"I suggest that the drivers of the public transportation
vehicles give signs, for example dim their lights, to indicate
that a robbery is taking place on board, or drive toward the
nearest police station," he added.