Police demand presence at airport
Police demand presence at airport
JAKARTA (JP): City Police chief Maj. Gen. Hindarto said
yesterday that police officers should be assigned at the customs
check room of the Soekarno-Hatta international airport to help
prevent arrivals by wanted criminals and smugglers as well as
baggage theft.
"A number of city police personnel should be deployed at the
airport. This might help reduce the number of crimes in the city,
in particular, and the country as a whole," Hindarto told The
Jakarta Post after inducting Lt. Col. Made Mangku Pastika as the
new precinct police chief of West Jakarta.
He said a joint team made up of officials of the Customs and
Excise office combined with police personnel should be formed
immediately.
"There have been a number of cases in which police had to work
harder and deploy more personnel to arrest a criminal after he
was able to get through the airport," he explained.
Hindarto cited the case of a member of the Italian Mafia, who
arrived in Denpasar, Bali. "No officials at Soekarno-Hatta
airport knew who he was. It was discovered that he was one of the
most sought after criminals by Interpol only after he had managed
to leave the airport."
He also hoped that the presence of the police personnel in the
customs and excise area could further eliminate the smuggling of
a wide variety of goods, including heroin, and theft of
passengers' baggage.
Dilemma
Due to bureaucracy and the absence of police officers at the
airport's Customs and Excise office, many on-the-spot
investigation cases of heroin smuggling, for example, fail to
uncover the people behind the crime, a police officer in charge
of drugs affairs said.
"We're not allowed to talk with the suspect and examine the
material evidence until the Customs and Excise officers finish
their own investigation," the police officer, who asked not to be
identified, said.
Hindarto, however, asked the newly-installed chief of the West
Jakarta police precinct, which also oversees the international
airport, to cooperate with officers from the Customs and Excise
and the airport authorities to tackle crime cases.
Lt. Col. Made Mangku Pastika replaces Lt. Col. MD. Primanto,
who was assigned as secretary to the Crime Investigation
Directorate at the City Police Headquarters.
Made's previous position was head of the Banking Crime unit of
the Economic Crime Investigation department at the National
Police Headquarters.
He graduated from the Armed Forces Academy (Akabri) in 1974,
Police High School (PTIK) in 1984 and the Army Commander Special
School (Seskoad) in 1991.
The former member of the Indonesian peacekeeping mission to
Namibia has taken a series of related courses overseas, including
those on criminal investigation in Tokyo in 1986, counter
disaster staff training in London in 1992 and management of
serious crime in Canberra in 1993.(bsr)