Jakarta. The South Jakarta Police have adopted community policing to increase interactive relations with community members by assigning one officer to every neighborhood, according to the police chief on Friday.

"We assign 580 officers to cover every neighborhood in South Jakarta although they will continue to carry out their duties like a criminal investigation, logistical supports, response to calls for our services, etc.," South Jakarta Police Chief Ade Ary Syam Indradi said during a visit to media group B-Universe in Jakarta.

The number is nearly half of the entire active service members at the South Jakarta Police.

"They will listen directly to complaints from community members about public safety and order and offer solutions or bring the issue to the office," he said.

Ade said it requires public participation to prevent crimes and the police alone cannot solve public safety problems.

"We use community policing in Japan as our benchmark and recently we conducted a study on crime prevention together with JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency]," Ade said without going into details.

On-duty officers blending with community members prove effective in sending messages about safety and order.

"We can directly tell people that it takes only three seconds for a burglar to steal a motorcycle, alert parents about drug distribution among children, or even advice families on how to handle domestic violence," Ade said.

Drug offenses and vehicle thefts are currently the highest crimes committed in the South Jakarta Police jurisdiction, he said. 

Community policing is particularly a great strategy in an area with a disproportionate police-population ratio like South Jakarta, home to 2.1 million people with just 1,260 full-time officers, Ade said.

The officer added that the National Police have improved services of emergency number 110 which can be accessed for free.

"You can call officers in an emergency situation, you can save other people by contacting these numbers," Ade said.

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