BALIKPAPAN – Makassar City has once again stolen the nation’s attention, especially within the scope of mayors throughout Indonesia.
This is because the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian praised it when he was the keynote speaker at the XVII National Work Meeting of the Association of Indonesian City Governments at BSCC, Balikpapan, Tuesday (4/6).
Tito said Makassar is the first city to implement the best digital security with Closed Circuit Television or CCTV that can monitor the entire city.
He gave an example, when a visitor comes to Makassar City, the monitoring can already be done when they exit the Sultan Hasanuddin airport door.
Then, the next CCTV can easily capture images again when visitors head to Makassar City.
The Makassar City CCTV is even able to highlight images up to 2 kilometers away.
“When there was a demonstration, throwing, rioting, the camera in Makassar can zoom up to 2 kilometers – showing the face clearly. What is even more sophisticated, it is connected directly to Disdukcapil and the data is immediately read,” he said.
Tito didn’t stop there. He revealed that the morning routine of the Mayor of Makassar, Moh. Ramdhan “Danny” Pomanto, is to check the overall condition of the city.
Starting from rubbish, rivers, to traffic jams.
“He (Danny Pomanto) checks the garbage every morning through CCTV. If he finds rubbish strewn around, he immediately calls the sub-district and village heads. 2 hours later, the rubbish is gone and the community is happy. He also checks the river through CCTV. Traffic jams too. There are so many public services that can be done with this CCTV,” he said.
As it has many conveniences and benefits for the wider community, Tito urged all mayors to implement a digital security system like the one implemented in Makassar City.
The budget is fairly cheap, according to him. With only Rp30 billion, Makassar City Government has been able to provide hundreds of CCTV cameras in the city.
“When I first wanted to make CCTV policy as a police chief, I was asked for Rp1 trillion. I immediately canceled it. I asked Mr. Danny, he only spent Rp30 billion. All of you can make it and monitor it on your iPad. Don’t project it, but hire children from your city, it really helps. The cost is also cheap,” he said.
Makassar’s Acting Secretary Firman Hamid Pagarra, who was present at the meeting, said he was proud that Makassar City was mentioned in front of all mayors and participants in Balikpapan.
He said that the Operation Room or War Room initiated by Makassar Mayor Moh Ramdhan Pomanto is one of the platforms to accelerate the Collect, Communicate, and Crunch functions in the Smart City stage starting in 2015.
“We, the delegates from Makassar City, are very proud to hear the praise from the Minister of Home Affairs for the city of Makassar in front of all meeting participants. Our War Room does display real time impressions through thousands of CCTV cameras at various strategic points, including tourist alley,” he explained.
He also emphasized that the War Room also displays population data, weather and climate monitoring, and GPS tracking applications on all public service vehicles owned by the Makassar City Government, such as Home Care cars.
“Equipped with a 24-hour active recording device (NVR), monitored through the Makassar City Operation Room. With the digital technology used, it can serve for 24 hours,” he concluded.
