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More officers needed to better patrol hot spots: Police chief

SINGAPORE — Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee closed his testimony before the Committee of Inquiry (COI) yesterday with a plea — not for more money, but for more bodies as he sought another 1,000 more officers to be added to the police’s ranks.

SINGAPORE — Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee closed his testimony before the Committee of Inquiry (COI) yesterday with a plea — not for more money, but for more bodies as he sought another 1,000 more officers to be added to the police’s ranks.

The extra manpower is needed so the men in blue “can acquire a much-needed strategic depth” and better police hot spots such as Geylang and Little India, he told the inquiry into the Dec 8 riot in Little India.

As of Dec 31, the Singapore Police Force comprised 8,784 regular officers and 3,688 full-time Police National Servicemen, a figure Commissioner Ng described as “way below international benchmarks”.

With Singapore’s total population of 5.4 million, that means one regular police officer for every 614 people, which is an “exceedingly low ratio” compared with other cities such as Hong Kong, London and New York.

“The truth is that the Singapore Police Force has not grown significantly in size, while Singapore’s population has grown by two million in the space of two decades,” Commissioner Ng said.

Still, despite the falling police-population ratio, the “persistently improving outcomes” show that the police have been “delivering great efficiency and tremendous productivity”, he added.

“Over the years, we have strived to keep our force small, while constantly creating new capabilities through deploying better technology, outsourcing and by co-creating with the community. Even then, we frequently rob Peter to pay Paul, as was the case when we kept reducing the size of our anti-riot troopers to fund other capabilities,” Commissioner Ng said.

In 1983, the police reduced the size of its riot troops from 12 to eight, alongside a reduction in troop size from 63 to 46 men. In 2004, riot troops were again downsized to 35 men to fund other initiatives such as counter-terrorism measures, following the September 2001 attacks in the United States.

The Commissioner of Police pointed out that after the Little India riot, “the first and immediate” public demand was for more police presence in the area.

“Time and again, the public will demand to see more police officers out and about,” he said.

However, at current manpower levels, the police “cannot come close” to having a “persistent police presence” — defined as having a police patrol pass a specified point once every 15 to 20 minutes — in either Little India or Geylang.

He added that an estimated additional 100 to 150 police officers will be required in each of the two localities on the weekends to project a truly visible police presence. More police officers would also be required for the same kind of presence in other hot spots. Last year, the police spent S$2.5 million on auxiliary police and security officers in Little India, he said.

“Geylang and Little India already stretched police resources to near breaking point. To keep up this tempo week after week, month after month, year after year, is ultimately unsustainable,” Commissioner Ng said. “The fact is that unless we can find a new way of policing, especially when dealing with large congregation and mass crowds, that does not require the brute force of numbers, any increase in police presence without a corresponding increase in head count cannot be sustained for long and will always be at the expense of reduced presence somewhere else.”

But Commissioner Ng felt building up on contingency forces, by having an additional riot troop on standby at any one time, was “the right way to increase police robustness before the next disturbance comes around”. He explained that with the police’s current resources and shift system, it was not possible for patrol officers to be trained to handle mass rioting. Such an exercise will “involve large and persistent investments in not just training, but also manning”.

“Unfortunately, developing such a capability is not possible now even if I wanted to do it, given our current level of resourcing and the current shift system that we operate in the police,” Commissioner Ng said.

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