SAF trainers learn from police on how they handle public security

SINGAPORE — Over the past months, trainers from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) have been attending courses run by the police to familiarise themselves with police procedures and protocols in tackling public security incidents.

This is in line with the ongoing partnership between the SAF and the Home Team to work more closely in the fight against terrorism.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)said that the SAF and the police carry out joint trainings to enhance “inter-operability and familiarity” between the two forces. They also hold regular joint exercises to test and validate their operational responses to a terrorist attack.

Last year’s islandwide counter-terrorism exercise was an example, where the SAF supported the Home Team in a scenario where multiple attacks occurred. In times of heightened threat, the police and the SAF have also held joint deterrence patrols at various locations in the country. Such joint exercises and training would continue, the two ministries said.  

Last November, Major Muhammad Azmie, company trainer with the Homeland Security Training Centre at the SAF’s Island Defence Training Institute (IDTI), attended a “train the trainer” course conducted by the
police. He had a better grasp of how the police operate, as well as their limitations and advantages.

Mindef and MHA did not want to go into specifics about how their tactics in dealing with threats differed, and how these would be ironed out.

On the importance of joint training, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Soh, commander of IDTI, said that no single agency can handle the present threat and security environment, which has increased in complexity.

“As a result, there’ll be a lot of alignment of our tactics, techniques and procedures ... The way we operate will need to be better synergised and integrated.”

In June, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen announced that from July, the IDTI would train about 18,000 soldiers — from both active and operationally ready National Service units — yearly in homeland security operations.

Trainees are taught to take the heat off situations rather than take an attacker down in the first instance, Second Sergeant Muhammad Zayyani, 26, a full-time national serviceman (NSF), said.

Private Ooi Yen Sun, 19, another NSF, said: “In a public situation, you cannot act rash and create unnecessary chaos.”