"The number of villages throughout Indonesia is a lot. It takes time and needs more personnel to realize the One Bhabinkamtibmas in One Village (Program)," Polri's Head of Public Relations, Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo, stated here on Monday.
Prasetyo said the program had yet to be realized due to the disproportionate number of police personnel in Indonesia currently reaching 450 thousand, while according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) in 2022, there are 81,161 villages in the country.
However, Bhabinkamtibmas was considered successful in maintaining the stability of public order and security at the village level, as was conveyed by the National Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, in the 2022 Polri year-end notes release on December 31.
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Based on the Charta Politica survey conducted on December 8-16, 2022, Bhabinkamtibmas' routine patrolling was one of the police’s programs whose benefits are felt the most by the community.
Some 71 percent of the public expressed satisfaction over the performance of Bhabinkamtibmas in building public communication, according to the survey.
"Therefore, I would like to thank the entire ranks of Bhabinkamtibmas, (and they should) continue the enthusiasm because the community appreciates what has been done," Prabowo stated.
Currently, the number of Bhabinkamtibmas personnel only covers 46.6 percent of the total number of villages in Indonesia.
To support the performance of Bhabinkamtibmas despite its limited number of officers, the National Police equipped Bhabinkamtibmas with the BOS-v2 application where the officers can report their activities, while Polri leaders can use it as a means of supervision.
Moreover, the Police Chief expected that Bhabinkamtibmas can play a larger role in events involving the lives of several people, such as handling foot and mouth disease (FMD) and COVID-19, scarcity of cooking oil, and assisting in verifying population data.
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Translator: Laily R, Kenzu
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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