SINGAPORE — An Aetos auxiliary police officer stationed at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) has been removed from duty after a video emerged showing him “being rude to an elderly couple” at its entrance, said the hospital.

TTSH said in a Facebook post on Friday (Feb 25) afternoon that it was alerted on Thursday night to the incident and has immediately removed the officer from his duties.

It added that it is “investigating further with Aetos”.

The video of the incident was uploaded to the social media platform TikTok on Thursday by a user known as Benedict Yeo, and subsequently went viral after it was shared close to 1,500 times and received over 14,600 likes.

Narration from the video, shot with Mr Yeo’s point-of-view camera that appears to be mounted on his motorcycle helmet, stated that he was sending his wife to work at the hospital on a rainy Thursday morning when he witnessed the incident.

Mr Yeo and a lorry in front of him had stopped temporarily under a shelter near the hospital’s entrance to allow their respective passengers to alight. It was not the designated pick-up and drop-off point.

It was, however, also along a single yellow zig-zag line — an indicator that motorists are not allowed to park along that side of the road at all times, except for immediate pick-up and drop-off.

The two-minute video shows the officer, whose face is blurred out, standing beside the lorry while its driver and another man is trying to help an elderly passenger get down and move onto a wheelchair, with another elderly woman watching on.

However, before the elderly man could be transferred onto the wheelchair, the officer glances towards Mr Yeo's direction several times and then claps his hands twice at the lorry group.

The driver responds to the officer with "slowly lah, friend" as he continues to try to help the elderly man onto the wheelchair.

The officer then gestures at the group and tells them “not to park here… park in front”.

It is not clear what the traffic situation behind Mr Yeo was like that morning. 

Parts of the audio were also not clear, but at one point, the elderly woman can be heard saying: “Uncle not walking.”

The security officer gestures at them again and said: “Not walking, park in front… easier.”

He also tells the second man, who is the driver of the lorry, to move his vehicle once he is done.

The woman tries apologising to the officer several times, while the driver tries reasoning with the officer, which results in a short exchange that is not audible.

The officer later acknowledges the woman's apology and reiterates that they should park in front as he does not want the road to get “jammed” while she continues to say they have "no choice". 

Commenting on the incident involving its own auxiliary police officer on Friday, Aetos said that all of its officers are "expected to uphold high standards of professionalism and service excellence" in the course of their duties.

"We do not condone the officer's conduct and will not hesitate to take the appropriate action when investigations are concluded," it added in a Facebook post.

Separately, TTSH said it “values mutual respect and the safety and well-being” of everyone in its hospital.

“We will work with our vendor partners to reinforce these same values to their staff deployed here. Our appreciation to members of the public for alerting us to this.”