J

akarta'€™s drivers can expect to receive citations for traffic violations in the mail next year while seeing fewer police officers on the streets.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency and the city'€™s traffic police introduced on Wednesday their intelligent road-transportation application, the Electronic Registration Identification (ERI) system, to improve the enforcement of traffic regulations.

The traffic police'€™s chief of security and safety, Adj. Sr. Comr. Irvan Prawira, said that motorists would have to install a device called an On-Board Unit (OBU) that could transmit data about the vehicle and the owner to electronic readers installed at points on the road, including toll gates and traffic lights.

'€œThe electronic readers will record traffic violations, such as entering Transjakarta'€™s exclusive lanes or driving into oncoming traffic, and capture the vehicle license plates using high-resolution cameras. The police will send the citation and block the vehicle'€™s registration certificate should the violator fail to pay their fines,'€ he told a public discussion held by the Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) in Pancoran, South Jakarta, on Wednesday.

He said that the police would also install mobile readers in their patrol vehicles to record traffic violations as well as establishing a data center at the Traffic Management Center to monitor all vehicles traveling around the city.

He added that the ERI system could also be used to identify stolen vehicles and falsified license plates.

'€œWhen the system has been implemented, there will be no more police personnel stopping traffic violators in the middle of the road and causing congestion,'€ Irvan said.

He said that the police aimed to decrease the number of traffic police operating on the roads.

'€œWe currently have 4,777 traffic police working on the roads. I hope with the implementation of the ERI system we can redeploy many of them to handle other street crimes,'€ he said.

The head of the traffic control section of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, I Dewa Gede Soni Aryawan, said that the ERI system would be integrated with the administration'€™s planned program to reduce the use of private vehicles, including an odd-even license-plate program and an electronic road pricing (ERP) system.

'€œWe expect the ERI system to be implemented next year after we complete the tender process,'€
Dewa said.

Irvan explained that the police had proposed implementing a pilot project of the ERI system on Transjakarta Corridor I, which connects Kota in North Jakarta and Blok M in South Jakarta.

Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said recently that the city administration also aimed to use the ERI system to stop the practice of bribing traffic police personnel in order for them not to
issue a citation.

On Wednesday, Ahok visited the National Traffic Police Corps headquarters on Jl. M.T. Haryono in Pancoran, South Jakarta, to discuss numerous traffic and transportation problems in the city with the organization'€™s chief, Insp. Gen. Pudji Hartanto Iskandar.

Jakarta Police'€™s law enforcement unit chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Hindarsono, who attended the closed-door meeting, told reporters that the discussion focused on strategies to curb the issuance of driving licenses to underage drivers.

'€œI have to acknowledge that some police personnel do not enforce the traffic law properly because they receive bribes,'€ he told reporters on Wednesday.

He said that police personnel who received bribes would be punished severely for infringing their professional code of ethics.

'€œThe worst punishment possible for police personnel is a dishonorable discharge,'€ he said. (ian/ogi)