Police impound vehicles from teens on wheels
JAKARTA (JP): Operation Cleansing resulted in 100 motorbikes and 46 cars being impounded from night-time, daredevil street racers in a recent raid on major roads in the city.
The Jakarta Military Command said yesterday the raid, which included Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin and Jl. Casablanca, was conducted on Sunday evening.
Col. Dharma Kusuma from the Jakarta Military Command said most of the night racers caught red-handed were high school and university students.
After being given a "lesson", the night racers were sent back home, but their vehicles were held by anti-crime personnel at the military garrison pending legal proceedings.
"The night racers pose danger not only to themselves but also to others. And often their actions lead to the death of the night racers or innocent passers-by," said Dharma.
Operasi Bersih, the local name for the anti-crime operation, did not originally target the speed demons. It started to crack down on them only recently after the press reported that the phenomenon seems to be getting worse despite the ongoing anti- crime drive.
The police force, which is directly responsible for tackling the daredevils, recently admitted failure to thoroughly resolve the case.
Col. Hotman Siagian, head of the Traffic Directorate at the City Police Headquarters, said the failure resulted from the lenient penalties meted out by the traffic law for such lawbreakers.
"Under existing law, we are only allowed to impound the racers' vehicles and ticket drivers found guilty of exceeding the speed limit," Hotman told The Jakarta Post last week.
Currently motorists are fined a maximum of Rp 5,000 (US$2.29) for speeding.
"We think we should apply stricter penalties to offenders," he said.
Also, some officers, argued the impotence of the police to tackle the street race case is because most night racers are children of influential high ranking officials.
In thee past the night racers found it easy to avoid penalties and reclaim their vehicles from the police thanks to the clout of their parents or relations.
Stickers
In a related development, the Jakarta Military Command said yesterday the personnel of the anti-crime operation had attached 17,871 "anti-crime" stickers containing the Starpage pager numbers of the Operation Cleansing squad at public phone booths across the greater Jakarta area.
Col. Sutarto, Operational Assistant to the Jakarta Military Command, urged the public to contact the numbers if they see something suspicious or witness a crime.
"Ten minutes after being contacted the motorbike patrolmen will arrive at the location," Sutarto pledged.
The pager number is 19201 for Central Jakarta, 19202 for North Jakarta, 19203 for West Jakarta, 19204 for South Jakarta, 19205 for East Jakarta, 19206 for Tangerang and 19207 for Bekasi.
The Starpage numbers are 314-4000, 310-1188, 390-2222 and 331- 100. (jsk)