In January 2009, the city police classified Central Jakarta as a “yellow area”, as well as Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi regencies. A yellow area describes a region with a medium level of crime, based on monthly crime statistics.
Central Jakarta is classified as a “safer” area than its neighboring North, South, West and East Jakarta territories, which have been marked as “red” or high crimes areas.
However, this does not mean all areas in Central Jakarta are considered “yellow”.
“There are also several districts in the territory that are classified as “red”, where the crime rate is higher than in other districts, like Johar Baru, Tanah Abang, Senen, and Kemayoran,” Central Jakarta Police Chief Sr. Comr. Ike Edwin said.
“Red” districts tend to have a high number of street crimes, brawls, as well as roaming drug dealers.
Places like Rawasari, Senen and Galur, in the Senen district, Bendungan Jago and Gempol in the Kemayoran district, Bendungan Hilir and Kampung Bali in the Tanah Abang district, the Coca Cola junction in the Cempaka Putih district and Tanah Tinggi in the Johar Baru district are all classified as “red” areas prone to street crimes.
Kampung Boncos in Tanah Abang, for example, is renowned as the place to find putaw (low-grade heroine).
The quiet and upscale Menteng district also has its own “red” zone, namely Menteng Trenggulun, where people can find shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) dealers.
Red areas are usually full of criminals, headed by a boss with “connections” to high-ranked police officers.
Criminals feel safer doing business in those areas as their boss can “fix” any legal problems.
“Several police officers came to Kampung Boncos looking for drug suspects. They were attacked and forced to leave the kampung,” a Tanah Abang resident, who requested anonymity, said.
Each district in Central Jakarta has its own police office called Polsek, led by a police commissioner, and staffed with patrol officers, detectives and intelligent officers.
Some 110 detectives, 55 drug squad members and 54 intelligent officers area are employed by the Central Jakarta Police, as well as 455 field officers.
The eight police offices in total employ 567 field officers. The number of field officers deployed in each district varies accordingly. Gambir, a district with frequent rallies at government offices, has 106 field officers while Kemayoran only has 42.
Throughout January to May this year, eight police offices did 3,353 patrols on top of the 24,985 patrolling activities carried out by officers at the Central Jakarta Police.
Ike said police measures were not sufficient to eradicate crimes, particularly in red areas. “Crimes are closely connected with poverty. So legal actions can’t work alone, they have to be simultaneously accompanied by welfare improvement from the government,” he said. (bbs)
Although Central Jakarta is considered safer than the city’s four other municipalities, it does include high-crime areas such as Tanah Abang.
