Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Stay alert always and keep a watchful eye when roaming Jakarta streets so that you won't become easy prey for street criminals, Jakarta Police warn in their latest 2005 report.

Jakarta police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said in the year-end report that the number of crimes taking place on the streets had soared to 1,214 cases in 2005, or 253 percent higher than the 343 cases reported to police in 2004.

Auto theft remained at the top of the police crime list with 10,230 cases last year, or an 13.78 percent increase from 2004's 8,991 cases. Other offenses that jumped significantly were gambling and drug-related cases.

Gambling, which is illegal, is still rampant in the city, despite an aggressive police crackdown recently. Reported gambling cases skyrocketed to 1,350 cases last year from 919 cases in the previous year.

"Since August last year, we have launched a massive crackdown to eradicate gambling in the city and apparently we have managed to significantly reduce it. Unfortunately, in the past few months, we have received reports of gambling, especially among poor residents through illegal lotteries, locally known as toto gelap and toto kampung," Firman said.

Police launched a massive crackdown against gambling after Gen. Sutanto, known for his stance against gambling, took his post as National Police chief last year and instructed all his subordinates to join the nationwide war against gambling.

Drug-related cases have also increased significantly by 31.88 percent this year from 4,510 cases in 2004 to 5,948 cases in 2005. Police apprehended over 7,780 suspects for drug cases, mostly men (7,307) and only 473 women.

"At least 27 of the suspects were foreigners," he said, adding that police had seized 5.6 kilograms of heroin, 72.7 grams of crystal methamphetamine (locally known as shabu-shabu), 205,270 ecstasy pills and 1,792,887 other psychotropic pills.

Certain other crimes, such as student brawls, extortion and assault, showed a slightly declining trend.

All in all, the number of crimes in the city only rose slightly by 0.83 percent to 54,391 cases last year, from 53,935 cases in 2004. However, only 3,413 of these cases had been brought to justice.

"We encourage people to report crime to us as soon as possible. The sooner we get the report, the faster a crime be uncovered," Firman said.

Crimes in Jakarta in 2005

• South Jakarta - 10,353 cases
• West Jakarta - 8,227 cases
• East Jakarta - 8,159 cases
• Central Jakarta - 7,008 cases
• North Jakarta - 4,937 cases