Police seeking funds to buy GPS

Police seeking funds to buy GPS

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The police have been seeking the city administration's assistance
to procure Rp 40 billion-worth of global positioning system (GPS)
communications equipment for installation in about 500 patrol
cars, according to a city councillor.

Chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the United Development
Party (PPP) Syarief Zulkarnain Ginting said on Monday that city
police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara had invited
councillors from the party to a meeting at the Jakarta Police
Headquarters on Monday to gain their support.

"We were invited by Pak Makbul. The police asked the PPP
faction to support them," said Syarief.

Syarief said Makbul explained to eight legislators in the
meeting that the GPS equipment was badly needed.

"The police receive an average of 2,800 calls per day about
various crimes from the public. The police cannot respond to all
the reports quickly due to the absence of an adequate
communications system," Syarief told reporters in his office.

Syarief, who attended the meeting, said that he could
understand that the equipment was really needed by the police so
that they could provide a better service to the public.

However, city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam
denied that the meeting with PPP legislators was part of police
lobbying efforts for Rp 40 billion from the administration.

"It was only a routine get-together between the police and
councillors," Anton told The Jakarta Post by phone on Monday.

Anton added that confirmation with city police chief Insp.
Gen. Makbul was necessary regarding details of the meeting.
Unfortunately, Makbul was not available when the Post contacted
him.

Anton, however, acknowledged that the police needed a lot of
money to purchase 500 GPS sets to respond to reports from the
public about incidents.

He added that at present the police had only three sets of GPS
equipment.