Police Deploy 44,582 Personnel To Secure Christmas-New Year

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

JAKARTA - The National Police have deployed 44,582 personnel to provide security at a number of churches in the context of the 2021 Christmas and 2022 New Year's Candle Security Operations.

"There are 44,582 police officers who will be deployed to provide security in churches," said Assistant Operations (Ashop) of the National Police Chief Inspector General Imam Sugianto to reporters, Wednesday, December 15.

Imam explained that the prepared Polri personnel were distributed to a number of churches in the country that held Christmas and New Year's Masses.

"A total of 30,761 personnel are placed in the Protestant Church, 13,821 personnel in the Catholic Church," he explained.

In addition to deploying personnel, continued Imam, the Police will also carry out church sterilization before and after the Christmas Mass and New Year's Mass.

In addition to securing places of worship for Christians, the National Police also deployed personnel to secure crowd centers during the Christmas and New Year 2022 holidays, such as shopping centers and tourist sites.

"There are 3,956 personnel guarding shopping centers, and 6,397 personnel at tourist attractions," said Imam.

Imam added that in securing the 2021 Christmas and New Year 2022 holidays, the National Police involved a number of parties such as religious leaders, community leaders, youth leaders and community organizations.

Imam added the involvement of religious and community leaders as well as youth leaders to provide education to the public, to fill the holidays while still implementing health protocols, and reducing mobility to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the holiday season.

During the 2022 Christmas and New Year holidays, the government made policy adjustments regarding the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) for the prevention and control of COVID-19 for Christmas 2021 and New Year's 2022 by issuing the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 66 of 2021.

Previously, the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian had actually issued instructions for the prevention and control of COVID-19 during Christmas 2021 and New Year's 2022, namely instructions numbered 62 of 2021.

The instruction still uses the term PPKM Level 3 implementation, then the term is no longer used, so it is necessary to adjust the instructions from the Minister of Home Affairs regarding PPKM Christmas and New Year.

Another reason for not using the term PPKM Level 3 is because the COVID-19 pandemic situation is very dynamic, including in various regions. Therefore, the use of this term is a response to this dynamic situation.