Gas pistol training begins for city security officers

JAKARTA (JP): The City Administration has started training selected public order and civil defense officers to use gas pistols, an official said on Monday.

"The selected officers have been trained by former members of the Indonesian Military," Head of the City Public Order Office Hadi Utomo said.

He said that the training session, which started last week, involves 30 people from the public order and civil defense officers.

The City Public Order office has spent Rp 1.2 billion to purchase 60 gas pistols to equip its public order and civil defense officers on the grounds that they need them for self defense in case of attacks during operations to restore order.

Given the worsening security conditions, the city administration had originally planned to buy 500 pistols.

Each gas pistol, which has an effective shooting range of up to 10 meters and weighs 660 grams with the magazine capacity of seven bullets, can paralyze a person for 10 minutes due to its anesthetic effect.

The city administration has spent Rp 20 million for each .9 millimeter caliber German-made Melcher pistol, with a 100 mm barrel, including training and license fees provided by the National Police headquarters.

Hadi reconfirmed that operational unit commanders would get priority in receiving the pistols, but he refused to reveal when armed officers would be deployed.

As part of preparatory safety measures, the city office has tested selected officers entitled to carry the weapon. The testing is aimed at determining the psychological and technical preparedness of an officer in possession of a firearm.

According to official data, the capital has at least 3,000 city public order officers, including new recruits who were formerly members of the now defunct People's Security (Kamra) civilian guard.

Some council members had earlier lodged strong complaints about the project, saying that the cost of Rp 20 million for each pistol was too high. They also questioned the urgency for civil officers to possess the pistol.

Contacted separately, the City Council's deputy speaker Djafar Badjeber said on Monday the council had nothing to complain about with regards to the allocation fund for the pistol.

"We agree that public order officers should be armed due to security reasons," he told The Jakarta Post by phone. (04)