Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Little India riot: COI points to police communication failure, perceived inaction

SINGAPORE — Rioters during last year’s Little India riot had “free rein to do whatever they wanted” because of the communication failure between police officers who chose to hold their ground instead of taking action.

Riot in Little India on Dec 8, 2013. Photo: Ooi Boon Keong

Riot in Little India on Dec 8, 2013. Photo: Ooi Boon Keong

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — Rioters during last year’s Little India riot had “free rein to do whatever they wanted” because of the communication failure between police officers who chose to hold their ground instead of taking action.

These were among the findings made by the Committee of Inquiry on the Dec 8 Little India Riot.

The COI also pointed to several lapses in the police’s actions during the second phase of the riot — when the body of the foreign worker, who had been killed in the accident, had been extricated from under the bus’ wheels and after the bus driver and timekeeper had been evacuated.

Overall, the police had responded “relatively swiftly and efficiently” to the riot, said the committee in its report released today (June 30).

Yet, police officers at the scene faced severe communication problems, resulting in the lack of coordination in the existing resources on the ground, the committee noted. Poor communication also hindered the arrival of the Special Operations Command (SOC) troops as they ended up being caught in traffic and did not turn up at the main problem area.

“That said, when communications fail, commanders on the ground must resort to other means of obtaining critical information,” the committee wrote in the report. “The Committee of Inquiry believes (commanding officer) DAC Lu (Yeow Lim) should have made more effort to establish the resources available and find out more about the situation, either by instructing his officers to move around, or doing so himself.”

The Committee further noted that the act of holding ground might have been perceived by rioters as inaction, “which could have encouraged an emboldened them to carry out more egregious acts”.

Pointing to video footage that showed rioters cheering as they damaged emergency vehicles prior to the arrival of the SOC, the committee felt that every successful attempt emboldened the rioters.

The committee also concluded that there were opportunities to intervene and take decisive action.

“The Committee of Inquiry is of the view that there were sufficient officers to take action had they been marshalled and directed to do so,” the committee wrote. “The riots were destroying property and pelting the officers with objects, but the Committee of Inquiry does not agree that it was a life threatening situation, or that the officers would have been in severe danger had they moved in to stop and arrest the rioters at the this time.”

Still, while the Singapore Police Force must improve on its training and communication plans, the lapses “do not reflect a serious and systemic failure in the police force as a whole”, the committee said.

Related topics

riot

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.