Unmarked vans used to fight crime

BEKASI, West Java (JP): The Bekasi police precinct officially launched six patrol vehicles equipped with security equipment which will pose as private, regular cars.

The vehicles equipped with video cameras as well as radio communication and weapons, which do not carry police identification, will help police to give suspected criminals "a shock therapy," Lt.Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, the police precinct chief said yesterday.

Once suspects are caught red-handed by officers in the vehicles, Alex said, others would be discouraged if they fear police are around in unidentified vehicles.

Police call the vehicles 'invisible hunter cars' (mobil pemburu siluman)

Alex said higher police mobility is urgent in Bekasi, where the ratio of a police officer to civilians is 1 to 2,400.

Crimes often occur in remote, rural, areas in Bekasi, which covers 148,437 hectares. Police officers number 1,200 while current population stands at 2.8 million.

"Robbery, burglary and torture are the most frequent criminal incidents here, followed by car and motorbikes thefts, and rape and sexual assault," Alex said after the launching ceremony.

Alex, also the president of the Asia Pacific chapter of the San Fransisco-based Society of Police Futurist International, a police organization, said the 'invisible' patrol units are the first of their kind in Indonesia.

The six automobiles were donations from Bekasi Regent Moch. Djamhari and some private firms such as the Astra Group and PT Mulia Glass.

Djamhari said that student brawls, clashes between residential groups and the use of drugs which have occurred in the capital also happened in Bekasi.

"I am suspicious that such clashes are engineered by certain individuals," said Djamhari, a lieutenant colonel.

News reports said yesterday that hundreds of residents of the Mustika Jaya in the Bantar Gebang district attacked neighboring residents of Nusa Sari Margaluyu.

The attack was initiated by a report that a Nusa Sari resident seized a watch from a resident of Mustika Jaya. One of the attackers died and five others were injured.

"We should step up awareness and security order in anticipating the heating political climate in the face of the upcoming general election," the regent said. (kod)