Students focus of police drive

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a bid to deter crimes and violence involving teenagers, the police will launch an operation targeting students, an officer said on Monday.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said the operation, code-named Kasih Saying (affection), was planned to be launched within days.

Anton said police were now in the phase of coordinating the technicalities with the provincial national education agency and the management of schools in Greater Jakarta.

"The operation will be carried out at schools, on the street, at shopping malls and on public buses," Anton told reporters at the police headquarters.

The operation will be carried out from elementary to high schools in Greater Jakarta.

He said the raids had taken into account the police's observation that Jakarta students too had been involved in serious crimes including drug abuse, robbery, street brawls, public bus hijackings and using pornography.

Anton also revealed that police had suspicions that in several cases, the students had been exploited by hoodlums in their criminal actions as the criminals took advantage of the students, thinking that the police would be lenient toward them if they were caught.

He said in several cases, such as public bus hijackings and robberies on buses, the students had been assisted by dropouts who wore school uniforms.

"In several spots in Jakarta, local hoodlums are suspected to have used students for their criminal activities," he said.

"If the criminals think that we will be lenient toward the students, should the latter be caught-red-handed conducting crimes, they are wrong as we will take measures that are as stern as possible toward them, including taking their cases to trial and putting them in prisons for juveniles," Anton stressed.

In the operation, police would raid the students, in the company of school officials, for weapons (often hidden for street brawls) and pornographic images, VCDs (video compact discs) or books, Anton said.

Apart from school raids, police would also give counseling and guidance to students concerning drugs and other current social problems that might touch their daily lives.

Such raids would also be carried out on the streets and on public transportation.

"Our patrolling officers will also check shopping malls to pick up students who are absenting themselves from lessons during school hours," he added.

However, Anton said, for schools whose managements objected to such raids, the police understood and would not push for the activities to be carried out within the school compounds.

He said there were several schools that had aired their objections.

"But I think the national education agency here has lists of schools that need such police action," Anton added.

When asked to comment on the planned raids, Ida Hasidah Herman, school principal of SMU Negeri (state senior high school) 6, said she had not yet been informed either by the police or the national education agency about the raids but would welcome any operations carried out by the police to order and discipline her students.

"As long as the operations are aimed at guiding and improving our children, we will support that," she told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview. (emf)