T

he Indonesia Research Center (IRC) released the result of a survey on Thursday, that identified Medan, North Sumatra, as the most unsafe city in the country.

The survey was based on the level of women’s fear of violence. According to the survey, Medan topped the list with a security level of minus 3.2 percent, followed by Samarinda in East Kalimantan, Palembang in South Sumatra, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Jakarta.

The survey was conducted by phone from March 2 to 6 with 855 respondents aged between 17 and 45.

The police questioned the results of the survey, saying that it was too subjective. “No matter what the survey says, we take the results [on board],” said North Sumatra Police spokesman Heru Prakoso on Friday.

Separately, Mahmud Mulyadi, criminal law expert at the University of North Sumatra (USU), said that Medan was much safer than other cities because the crimes that occurred in the city were mostly organizational crimes, not street crimes.

“I’ve been living in Medan for 11 years and I feel it is much safer than Palembang [South Sumatra]. Crimes are common in big cities, but the crimes seen in most cities in the country are not as scary as the ones in Jakarta,” said Mahmud, adding that the survey might give Medan a bad name.