It’s not groundbreaking technology by any means, but Jakarta finally has its first set of traffic cameras in the city that law enforcement can use to police the capital’s drivers starting today.
After a month-long trial of the traffic cameras — part of a new automated traffic policing system dubbed the Electronic Traffic Law Enforcement (ETLE) — the Jakarta Traffic Police says any motorist snapped by the cameras can now be fined in accordance with existing laws.
The cameras are currently only installed in two busy locations in Central Jakarta: the Sarinah intersection and on Jalan MH Thamrin. The police say the two locations were chosen because of their close proximity to the Presidential Palace and government buildings, as well as their importance as part of Jakarta’s main commercial thoroughfare.
More cameras are expected to be installed throughout the capital in 2019.
“We will evaluate, but [ETLE] will certainly continue to be in effect,” Jakarta Metro Police Traffic Director Grand Commissioner Yusuf told CNN Indonesia today.
The cameras are connected to a monitoring hub in the Jakarta Metro Police HQ. If the police decide there has been a violation, they will send a traffic ticket to the motorist’s address by mail and/or email.
The motorist will then have one week to pay their fine via a partner bank. Failure to do so would result in their vehicle registration being frozen, meaning the motorist couldn’t pay their annual vehicle tax until they paid their fine.
According to early reports, during the initial stages of ETLE, vehicles bearing license plates from outside Jakarta will not be fined under the system as they aren’t in the city’s database. However, it’s likely ETLE will soon be implemented and enforced in other major cities as well.
During the month-long trial, designed to test the cameras and during which time violators were not fined, the police say they captured 4,260 violations using ETLE. Worryingly, the number of violations spiked instead of decreased towards the end of the trial period, meaning we’ll likely see many motorists fined now that ETLE has come into full effect.
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