Christmas-New Year Holidays, The National Police Holds Candle Operation 2024 Starting December 21

Head of Public Relations Division of the National Police Inspector General Shandi Nugroho (Photo: Rizky AP/VOI)

JAKARTA - The National Police will hold a 2024 Candle Operation regarding securing the 2024 Christmas and 2025 New Year celebrations. The implementation starts December 21, 2024 to January 2, 2025.

"This activity is our effort to provide a sense of security and comfort for people who will carry out activities, both for worship, homecoming, and recreation trips," said Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police Inspector General Shandi Nugroho, Wednesday, December 18.

In the operation which lasted for 13 days, as many as 141,605 joint personnel from various agencies were deployed.

Then, as many as 2,794 posts were established to ensure the safety of people who go home or vacation during the 2024 Christmas and 2025 New Year celebrations. Thousands of these posts consist of 1,852 security posts, 735 service posts, and 207 integrated posts.

"This operation also reflects the strong synergy between the Police and all relevant stakeholders," he said.

Shandi detailed one of the security objects at the 2024 Candle Operation, namely places of worship. The goal is to provide a sense of security to Christians when celebrating Christmas.

In addition, several other objects were secured, namely tourist attractions, shopping centers, and transportation facilities.

On the other hand, Shandi also said that the Korlantas Polri and other relevant stakeholders would implement traffic flow engineering at a number of points.

This step was taken to anticipate congestion during the 2024 Christmas and 2025 New Year holidays. Based on data from the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub), the movement of people with various modes of transportation is predicted to reach 110.67 million people.

This figure has increased by 2.83 percent or around 3.04 million people compared to the same period the previous year.

Moreover, the peak of the homecoming flow is predicted to occur in two waves. Starting on December 21 and December 28, 2024. Then, the peak of backflow on December 29, 2024 and January 1, 2025.

"Seeing the high mobility of the community, traffic engineering such as contra flow and one way will be implemented at a number of points as needed. This strategy has proven effective in Operation Ketupat 2024 and will be used again to support the smooth flow of homecoming and return," said Inspector General Sandi.