Bandung Kidnapping Case in Spotlight, West Java DPRD Promotes Digital Siskamling

BANDUNG - Deputy Chairman of the West Java Provincial DPRD, Iwan Suryawan, proposed the establishment of a Digital Siskamling system as a new model of environmental supervision to prevent cases of violence, kidnapping, and criminal acts that are difficult to detect in urban areas.

The proposal was submitted in response to the case of alleged kidnapping and torture in Bandung, which has recently become a public concern. According to Iwan, the incident was an evaluation that the environmental surveillance system in urban areas needs to adapt to the development of patterns of people's lives.

"We can no longer use old manual methods while domestic crime patterns are increasingly closed, especially in metropolitan cities such as Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, and Bandung," said Iwan, Tuesday, July 2.

He assessed that the agglomeration area in West Java has a high level of mobility and social dynamics so that social control between neighbors is increasingly reduced. This condition is considered to open the opportunity for acts of violence that are not detected for a long time.

Therefore, Iwan encouraged the district and city governments in West Java to start transforming the conventional environmental security system into a Digital Siskamling that utilizes communication technology.

According to him, each residential area can have an integrated application-based communication platform so that residents can report various indications of security disturbances quickly, safely, and anonymously.

"Through this Digital Siskamling, each residential cluster must have an integrated application-based communication platform, so that residents can report environmental anomalies, such as suspicious houses or screams, safely and anonymously," he said.

In addition to the use of technology, Iwan also proposed the implementation of the Zero-Isolation Policy, a policy that encourages social supervision of houses that are closed from the surrounding environment. According to him, verification of new residents and houses that are closed for a long time needs to be carried out periodically by the environment.

"We need community intelligence in big cities. Neighbors should no longer just be spectators or indifferent, but must be part of the early detection system. If there is a house that isolates itself extremely from the environment, the RT/RW manager needs to have a space to carry out checks with related authorities," he said.

To encourage community participation, Iwan also proposed incentives for environments that actively maintain the security of their territory. He proposed a Social Readiness Incentive of IDR 5 million to IDR 10 million per year for RT/RW that successfully integrate Digital Siskamling, as well as awards of up to IDR 50 million for villages or neighborhoods with the best environmental surveillance systems through support from the APBD and Village Funds.

According to Iwan, the technology-based approach combined with the strengthening of the role of the community is expected to be able to narrow the scope of action of perpetrators of crimes while rebuilding a culture of social concern in residential areas.

"Hopefully, people will no longer consider the surrounding issues as a personal matter, but have the courage to report in order to prevent violence and save lives," he concluded.