Quarantine Violation Become Jokowi's Attention, Police Will Take Strict Action

JAKARTA - The Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police (Polri), Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo, emphasized that his party would not hesitate to take action against perpetrators of quarantine violations and irregularities.

This is in accordance with the direction of the National Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who followed up on President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) order.

Inspector General Dedi said the National Police Chief had ordered the Directorate of Special Economic Crimes (Dittipideksus) of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police to form a team to investigate alleged violations and irregularities in quarantine.

"The team is working, already communicating, coordinating, verifying, with various parties starting from immigration, health quarantine then the Covid task force, airport managers to officers at the airport, until upstream is the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) which manages hotel services where foreigners and Indonesian citizens are quarantined," said Inspector General Dedi, quoted from a written statement from the Public Relations Division of the Police, Saturday, February 5.

Until now, said Dedi, investigators were still investigating whether there was a criminal act in the quarantine process. If there is and evidence is found, the investigator will not hesitate to identify the suspect.

"Anyone who is proven to have violated the quarantine from upstream to downstream will be taken decisive action," he said.

Dedi explained that several cases of quarantine violations occurred because of the blank area of a person, both a foreign citizen (WNA) and an Indonesian citizen (WNI) when leaving the plane to immigration.

"There is a blank area that allows quarantine violations and deviations to occur. Transactions occur so that foreigners and Indonesian citizens who should be quarantined in places that have been prepared but have not done so," he said.

To minimize this, the National Police has launched a Precision Quarantine Monitoring Application. However, he also said that cooperation from other stakeholders such as the COVID-19 Task Force and the TNI was needed to carry out conventional supervision.

Regarding the Precision Quarantine Monitoring Application, Inspector General Dedi explained, this application digitally monitors foreigners and Indonesian citizens entering Indonesia from arrival to quarantine locations.

Several locations of the entrance to Indonesia, both airports, ports, and cross-border posts (PLBN) have implemented this application. As a result, Dedi continued, it was quite effective in supervising foreigners and Indonesian citizens who were quarantined.

"Currently this application is good and effective. However, manual supervision needs to be covered. There is a policy from National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) that every certain period the officers guarding the quarantine location must be replaced to minimize quarantine violations," he said.

He also explained some of the advantages of the Precision Quarantine Monitoring application, in which everyone who quarantines will be recorded in the system for how long they have been quarantined and when they have been out of quarantine.

In fact, this application can detect people who are in quarantine if they run away from the quarantine location.

"If you go out 200 meters from the quarantine location, there will be a warning to the command center. Then the officers can find and pick up the person to complete the quarantine period," he said.

However, Inspector General Dedi admits that some of the obstacles to this application are dependence on the internet. Because this application can run if the internet network is stable.

There is also the possibility of an attempt to violate someone who is in quarantine leaving his cellphone to escape from quarantine so that it cannot be traced.

"Therefore, there must be a synergy between technology and conventional supervision," he said.

The National Police hopes that quarantine violations can be suppressed amidst the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Inspector General Dedi also warned the public that there would be legal consequences if they violated the quarantine.

"There are various kinds of regulations that have been violated, namely Article 14 of Law Number 4 of 1984 concerning infectious disease outbreaks and Article 93 of Law Number 6 of 2018 concerning Quarantine which is a one year prison sentence and a fine of IDR 100 million," he said.

In addition, the National Police appealed to the public to remain disciplined with health protocols (prokes) wherever carrying out activities both indoors and outdoors and avoiding crowds.

"The task force will tighten health protocols so that level assessments in the area can be controlled. Please report it to the nearest police if you see quarantine deviations, strict action will be taken," he said.