The governor of Jakarta has announced plans to install hundreds of cameras across the Indonesian capital following an international report that ranked Jakarta as one of the least safe large cities on the planet.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known as Ahok, said the 2,500 closed-circuit cameras would monitor citizens and assist police in detecting vulnerabilities in each sector of the city.
"If there are 2,000 people endangering the 10 million citizens [of Jakarta], I’m warning that arrests will be made," he said. "If they endanger the officers, they’d be disabled. We’ll shoot and aim at their feet. If the shot is not accurate and instead hits the head, it won’t be our fault. We want to convince citizens in and around Jakarta that they are safe."
He added that with poverty as a major cause of crime, the government would tackle the issue by identifying and assisting citizens with economic problems.
Meanwhile, the city's chief of police, Inspector General Unggung Cahyono, said police stations would be established in every corner of the capital with well-armed personnel at the ready to combat criminals.
"What we are deploying now is police monitoring posts. These can be viewed on any of Jakarta’s streets," he said. "There are three layers of security: the traffic unit, the security unit and a mobile brigade. The mobile brigade is armed with blanks, rubber bullets and live ammunition."
Early this week, a 2015 Index of Safest Cities in the World by The Economist Intelligence Unit named Jakarta as the least safe large city in the world.
Tehran, Ho Chi Minh City, Johannesburg and Riyadh were also in the bottom five. Tokyo was rated the safest large city in the world, followed closely by Singapore, Osaka, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Indonesian service.
