Low numbers obstruct performance of police

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.