People urged to enhance neighborhood security
Damar Harsanto The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Criminologists urged people on Saturday to enhance their neighborhood security system amid the failure of the police force to curb rising crime in the capital and to solve most crimes.
"It is timely for people to set up a neighborhood watch and to maintain security within their communities for their own protection," said criminologist Harkristuti Harkrisnowo of the University of Indonesia.
Harkristuti said the people needed to have more solidarity and sense of responsibility in upholding security in their own community amid concerns that the police were powerless in fighting rising crime in the city.
Otherwise, Harkristuti said, people would become easy prey for criminals.
"People must be aware that if their neighbors' home is broken into, their home could be next," Harkristuti said.
Meanwhile, police observer of the same university, Eko Dahana, argued that the neighborhood security system should only support police efforts not "replace" them.
"Civilians are not allowed by law to possess firearms for their own protection, so the police still have the major responsibility for public security," Eko said.
"We must avoid the presence of vigilante groups taking over the role and function of the police."
Eko said the people could participate in upholding security by immediately reporting an incident to police whether they are a victim or witness of a crime.
However, Eko criticized the police for their reputation that made people feel reluctant to report any crimes to police.
Police's operations are considered ineffective in preventing crimes amid mounting reports of crimes in the city.
According to police records on the eleven most common crimes in the capital, such as car theft, robbery, extortion, and drug abuse, the number of crimes totaled 18,677 cases in 2001.
The number rose sharply from only 10,217 and 10,678 cases in 2000 and 1999 respectively. During the first seven months of this year alone, the number of offenses had reached 9,869 cases.
Police said earlier that it would boost efforts to clamp down on rising crime by, among other things, fielding more patrol cars to operate around the clock across the capital.
Unfortunately, the rising number of offenses has not been followed by an equally impressive number of crimes solved by the police. Last year, police only solved 6,720 cases, a slight increase from 5,724 and 5,940 cases in 2000 and 1999 respectively.
Eko alluded that the poor success rate of the police was partly due to limited human resources and financial constraints.
"The police must recruit more personnel to increase the ratio of police officers to the people," he said.
Ideally, Eko said, the ratio of police to population should be one to 500, but in Jakarta with a population of 12 million on working days and 8 million at night, the ratio reportedly stands at one to 700.
Eko also recommended that the government increase the fund to cover the operational costs of the police so they could improve their services to the public.
"The poor services they deliver are partly due to the unrealistic funds allocated to finance their operational costs," Eko said.