VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Police officers patrol a deserted Sudirman-Thamrin road on December 31, 2020, after restrictions were imposed on public movement. (ANTARA PHOTO/Galih Pradipta/pras) - 

The Traffic Directorate of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police disclosed on Wednesday that at least 1,200 traffic officers would be deployed to prevent crowds at several locations in the capital city on New Year's Eve.

"The directorate has readied around 1,200 personnel to monitor key locations in the city," the directorate's Law Enforcement Sub-directorate head, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Argo Wiyono, informed on Wednesday.

The officers will be deployed at ten locations that have the potential to attract crowds on New Year's Eve, he said.

The ten locations are the East Flood Canal in East Jakarta; Kemayoran, Sudirman-Thamrin road, Asia-Africa road, the National Monument in Central Jakarta; Kemang, Bulungan and Barito, Senopati-Gunawarman, and SCBD in South Jakarta; Jakarta Old Town in West Jakarta; and Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta, Wiyono disclosed.

A "crowd-free night" will be enforced from 10 p.m. local time (UTC +7) on December 31, 2021, until 4 a.m. on January 1, 2022, the sub-directorate head said.

All business establishments, such as cafés, restaurants, bars, malls, and department stores, within the crowd-free night locations have been instructed to close at 10 p.m., he added.

"All business establishments must close by 10 p.m., but we will provide a one-hour buffer period until 11 p.m. After 11 p.m., the officers will conduct a sweeping to examine the ten locations," Wiyono stated.

No public activities will be allowed in the ten crowd-free night zones after 11 p.m., and the police will enforce a traffic diversion to ensure the zones remain empty until the conclusion of the crowd-free night, he added.

Earlier, the Jakarta Metropolitan Police, the Jakarta Regional Military Command, and the Jakarta provincial authority had deployed 8 thousand joint officers to monitor public activities and security during the Christmas and New Year period.

The decision to enforce the crowd-free night during New Year's Eve is meant to prevent public locations from turning into COVID-19 infection hotspots, particularly as the Omicron variant has been recently detected in Indonesia, Wiyono said//ANT