With 18 years of experience as a detective with the city police, the newly installed Jakarta Police chief Ins. Gen. Tito Karnavian says he will prioritize the war against rampant crime in Jakarta.

Tito, who received two extraordinary rank promotions for his success in the killing of top terrorists and for bringing the youngest son of former president Soeharto to court, vowed to clean up the city'€™s police force.

'€œWhat is clear is that we will take firm and resolute action. But firm action does not mean that we will shoot to kill, but rather measured acts,'€ said Tito after National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti installed him in his new position along with other police generals.

Tito said that he also planned to establish eight task forces within the Jakarta Police that would specialize in handling different crimes such as street violence and violent motorcycle robberies, which have been prevalent this year.

However, he also emphasized the need to improve the recruitment process and strengthen the police force.

'€œA task force will be established just for that ['€¦] Although I cannot speak about the technicalities yet, we must also increase supervision of our personnel. In the near future I will visit all the police stations [under the Jakarta Police] to inspect them,'€ he said.

He explained that as the country'€™s capital city, there was a vast range of crimes that occurred in Jakarta, ranging from petty crime to politically motivated acts.

Born in Palembang on Oct. 26, 1964, Tito obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Exeter, UK, in 1993. In 2013 he received a PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

He is widely known as a counterterrorism specialist with credentials that include the killings of Azahari bin Husin in 2005 and Noordin Mohammad Top in 2009, both Malaysian citizens who were behind the 2002 Bali bombings that claimed the lives of more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Tito, a former Papua Police chief, said that tackling Jakarta'€™s traffic problem was also one of his main priorities.

'€œDealing with traffic jams is a priority since this is one of the biggest problems Jakarta faces,'€ he said.

According to a stop-start index conducted by British lubricant producer Castrol, Jakarta ranked as the city with the highest number of stops and starts, with an average of 33,240 per driver per year, in comparison to 77 other cities worldwide.

Data from the Jakarta Police showed that the city had roughly 17.5 million motor vehicles on the road in 2014, a significant increase from 16 million the previous year.

Badrodin praised the 50-year old Tito as a general who had a number of great achievements. He believed that Tito would be more than capable of facing the complex challenges of being the city'€™s
top cop.

Badrodin said he believed that Tito would be able to handle the problems Jakarta faced on a daily basis due to his skills and experience.

'€œWe hand Pak Tito the opportunity to face these challenges,'€ said Badrodin.

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