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‘Hoodlum Eradicators’ Clean Up Mean Streets of Medan
Nivell Rayda | July 13, 2009

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Valkyrie
11:30am Jul 13, 2009

Nice thought "dregar." I think it's going to be very diffficult. The hard core thugs are protected.

Along Cinere Raya, you will observe an operation that goes on daily. That is, mini bus operators handing over cash to dubious guys stationed along their route.

If I can see it, certainly would the Police. Don't you think so?

Nevertheless, I'll join in your hope that change can take place soon.


dregar
6:00am Jul 13, 2009

Glad to know the police is serious in handling hoodlums problems. Here's hoping the effort can be replicated to Jakarta and other cities.

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Medan. Just five years ago, residents of this city wouldn’t dare walk alone at night because gangs ruled the streets.
Those days are gone. The capital of North Sumatra has seen its crime rate drop dramatically since 2005, mostly due to the establishment of the “Hoodlum Eradication Team,” a special police unit that has won the hearts of the public.

“People were too afraid to go out at night, especially young girls traveling alone in the wrong part of town,” said Hasudungan Pangabean, a Medan resident.

“I wouldn’t let my girls go out alone after dark.”

The city’s traditional markets, long under the thumb of local preman, or thugs, are now equally as safe as the streets.

“There used to be a lot of thugs forcing vendors to pay ‘protection money,’ but now there are barely any,” said Dewi, a vegetable seller at a market near the city center.

“There are no more thugs in Medan.”

What happened to turn this city’s mean streets into an oasis of public order? Police officials say it coincided with the outbreak of peace in neighboring Aceh following an agreement between the central government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement in August 2005.

As part of the agreement, the National Police withdrew its paramilitary Mobile Brigade (Brimob) units from Aceh, which had been tasked with suppressing the separatist movement. Some were reassigned to Medan, where they were recruited to join the new anticrime team.

Medan Police Chief Imam Margono said 30 percent of the city’s 4,000 police officers now serve on the team, which patrols 24 hours a day.

“Especially in places with the highest potential crime rates, like the city center and markets, we regularly conduct raids looking for hoodlums and we rely on information from the public to catch them,” he said.

The statistics speak for themselves: The city recorded 10,208 crimes in 2007, but only 2,346 in 2008. Through June of this year, the team has arrested more than 420 people for various offenses.

Former Medan Police Chief Irawan Dahlan was the Hoodlum Eradication Team’s first leader, and has since joined the National Police as a consultant to help implement the program in other major cities, including Jakarta.

However, it won’t be as easy for the nation’s capital to emulate the success story in Medan.

There are 1,200 anti-hoodlum officers there, covering an area of 26,510 square kilometers in a city of only 2.5 million people.

Jakarta, on the other hand, covers 661,000 square kilometers and has a population of 12 million, requiring a Hoodlum Eradication Team of 6,000 officers, according to a National Police estimate. The city would be hard pressed to find that many officers, officials said.