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)