Low numbers obstruct performance of police

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The West Java police are still ranked lowest in terms of its police-resident ratio, and the small number of personnel affects the force's ability to prevent crimes, a senior police officer has said.

Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida, chief of West Java police that oversees West Java and Banten provinces, said a meager force of 22,000 West Java police oversaw the safety of 44 million residents in the two provinces. This means that single policeman is responsible for 2,000 residents.

Ideally, one policeman oversees 300 people.

"Our figure is far from ideal. We even lag behind other provinces. In Jakarta, one policeman oversees 400 people and in Bali, one policeman oversees only 25 people," he said on Monday, while evaluating the force for year 2003 at West Java police headquarters in Bandung.

Banten, a newly established province, does not yet have its own police force, so security in the province is now temporarily being handled by the West Java police.

Dadang said he would double the police force overseeing the two provinces and plans to recruit 2,400 personnel in 2004. This figure is double the normal annual recruitment of 1,200 personnel.

The West Java police has also proposed a budget to the National Police in Cisarua, Lembang, to expand and develop more training facilities.

Increasing the police force and improving policing skills are part of efforts to deal with the alarming number of crimes in the province.

West Java police recorded 16,800 crimes last year, most of which were theft and fraud cases. Only 51 percent of these have been solved, and the remainder are still being investigated.