TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Police beef up measures to stop violent motorcycle theft

Greater Jakarta residents are worried about begal or muggers following a string of news reports about violent motorcycle theft

Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, February 28, 2015

Share This Article

Change Size

Police beef up measures to stop violent motorcycle theft

G

reater Jakarta residents are worried about begal or muggers following a string of news reports about violent motorcycle theft.

Gangs of begal have seriously injured their victims and even killed some during the robberies, which usually occur at night in peripheral areas like Depok, Bekasi, Tangerang and South Tangerang.

Nandar Sukandar, an ojek driver in Cinere, Depok, West Java, said since he heard the news, he started thinking twice about accepting an order later than 11 p.m.

'€œIt'€™s not like I don'€™t want the money, I just don'€™t want to get killed because, from what I hear, most begal commit their crimes around midnight,'€ Nandar told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Tanti, a resident of Wisma Jaya in Bekasi, West Java, shared ojek driver'€™s concern as her neighbor recently became the victim of such a crime. '€œEven violent robbery happens in my crowded neighborhood. I don'€™t want to go outside at night except if I really have to,'€ she said.

In Jakarta, people usually feel safer in crowded neighborhoods because many local residents still hang out on the streets late into the night, giving a sense of security.

Crimes usually happen in deserted areas where there are no people to come to help a victim.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Unggung Cahyono said on Friday that most gangs of violent vehicle thieves in Greater Jakarta came from Lampung and were known on the streets as the '€œLampung Group'€.

In comparison with other groups, the Lampung group was feared for not hesitating to use homemade firearms to attack their victims or nearby police officers, he went on.

Unggung said the group would attack their victims even if the victims did not fight back. Other groups only used their weapons if their victims fought back.

'€œI have contacted the Lampung Police and asked them to tighten security in the border area so we can minimize the crimes,'€ Unggung said.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said that compared to 2013, 2014 actually had less violent crimes. However, he said the criminals had become more sadistic.

'€œI assure you that violent vehicle theft is less frequent, but their actions have become more sadistic,'€ Martinus told reporters at the Jakarta Police headquarters recently.

Jakarta Police recorded that in January this year alone there were 80 vehicles thefts in Greater Jakarta, most of them took place in South Jakarta with 17 cases, followed by Central Jakarta with eight cases.

According to Martinus, the police had solved 45 out of the 80 cases and arrested the perpetrators.

'€œWe have to be smarter than the criminals,'€ Martinus continued

He added that the Jakarta Police had formed a special team for every police precinct in each municipality to eradicate the crimes.

Unggung said the headquarters had dispatched an additional 360 officers from the intelligence, narcotics and special crime unit to handle the crimes.

He said that Jakarta Police were focused on eliminating vehicle theft and claimed they had arrested 93 street muggers within this year and had shot seven of them to death for trying to escape or fight back during the arrest. '€œI have ordered the policemen to not hesitate to open fire if the perpetrators were being dangerous,'€ Unggung said.

He said the police had also started doing a routine raid every night in outer areas such as Bekasi and Depok between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.