Zaky Pawas – Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said on Tuesday that the number of crimes in the capital had fallen over the past year, but added a worrying rise in homicide and the growing seriousness of assault cases were bucking the trend.
Sutarman said a total of 55,006 crimes were reported to the police so far this year, down from 57,038 in all of 2009. "We've managed to solve 30,401 of this year's cases, whereas last year we solved only 29,334," Sutarman said.
He added that for every 100,000 people in Jakarta, 248 people had been charged with a criminal offense this year, down slightly from 257 last year. Sutarman also noted a drop in 10 of the 11 most common crimes, although he said the gravity of some of the offenses was far greater than before.
The 11 common crimes are murder, rape, aggravated assault, extortion, arson, drug trafficking, vehicle theft, gambling, theft with assault, ordinary theft and juvenile delinquency.
Those crimes experienced a reduction from last year's figures, except murder, which has seen 89 cases so far this year, compared to 79 in 2009.
Even then, Sutarman said, police were making good progress in solving the cases. "We've already solved 67 of the homicide cases and we're working on the other 22," he said.
He added that while the number of aggravated assault cases had dropped from 2,201 to 1,835 this year, several key cases remained unsolved.
Among them are the firebombing of Tempo magazine's editorial office on July 6 by unknown parties. The attack was believed to be in retaliation over the magazine's cover story that month, which delved into the suspiciously large bank accounts of several police generals.
The morning the magazine was to have gone on sale, 30,000 copies were bought up by unknown parties, although there were reports that stacks of magazines were loaded into police cars.
Another assault case that remains open is the July 8 attack on Tama Satya Langkun, a researcher with Indonesia Corruption Watch, who was instrumental in compiling the report on which Tempo based its expose. Tama was assaulted by several attackers when leaving his office.
"We still don't know who was responsible for those attacks," Sutarman said.
He said one of the reasons so many cases remained unsolved was because of ongoing reforms within the police force. "The bureaucratic reforms aren't yielding optimal results yet, so we're still hitting obstacles in terms of human resource management and facilities," he said.
Another problem was the bad publicity garnered each time a police officer was alleged to have committed a crime. "That obviously erodes public trust in the institution, which in turn makes it more difficult for the rest of the force to do its job," Sutarman said.
External factors included criminals employing more advanced techniques and technologies, government policies that were not conducive to law enforcement and an increase in mob riots, the police chief said.