Police Chief designate seeks a safer Bekasi
Police Chief designate seeks a safer Bekasi
JAKARTA (JP): Bekasi police chief designate Lt. Col. Harry
Pribadi has pledged to devote his attention to the capture of the
murderer of Herbin's family.
"I will give top priority to efforts to capture the killer of
Herbin Hutagalung's family," Harry told reporters yesterday at
his office.
Harry was replaced yesterday by Lt. Col. Gories Mere as head
of the General Cases Investigation office of the Investigative
Directorate at the City Police Headquarters and will be installed
as new Bekasi police chief in the near future.
He will replace Lt. Col. Basyir Barnawi as chief of Bekasi
police.
The murder of Herbin Hutagalung's family, which occurred early
this year in Bekasi, will go down as one of the most violent and
sadistic mass murders in the country's history.
Six members of Herbin's family were brutally slaughtered by a
man who has been identified by the police but remains at large.
"The suspect (nicknamed "Gendut") is a cold-blooded criminal.
He has the heart to leave his little children and wife for an
indefinite period of time. Thus, holding his family hostage, a
method that has proven successful in the past to trap several
hardcore criminals will not work against him," he said.
Although Harry pledged to do his utmost to crack the case, he
could not assure that the suspect would be nabbed anytime soon.
Rising
Harry said he will also pay serious attention to the security
situation at housing complexes.
"The crime rate is now rising steadily on the outskirts of
Jakarta, including Bekasi. Thus, the question for me is how to
secure the housing complexes where many educated workers of
Jakarta now live," he said.
He is of the opinion that Bekasi might require some unique
security system suitable for the mushrooming of residential
housing complexes which mark the area.
"I already have a plan to discuss with the developers as to
what kind of security system is most suitable in the housing
complexes they are going to build. The residents of the housing
complexes should also be involved in the discussions," he said.
Like Harry, his successor Mere also spent most of his police
career in investigative affairs.
Born in Medan in 1954, Mere graduated from the AKABRI (Armed
Forces Academy) in 1976.
He served in Namibia in 1989 and 1990, and in the UN
Peacekeeping force in Cambodia in 1992.
He worked as a private assistant to the city police chief
prior to his new job. (jsk)