Police's ‘smart clubbing’ campaign switches focus to violent crime as number of cases spikes

SINGAPORE — Violent crimes such as rioting, fights in public places and serious hurt among party-goers grew by 55 per cent despite a year-long campaign by the police. This is even as nightclub employees from the campaign's participating outlets become more proactive in preventing disputes from escalating into fights.

There were 56 such crimes in the first eight months of this year — or more than one case a week on average — compared with 36 for the same period last year.

In July, eight people aged between 22 and 27 were arrested in connection to a murder case at Orchard Towers. A 31-year-old man was killed following a fight which was believed to have started in a club. The high-profile case is before the courts, with four of the suspects facing a charge that carries the death penalty — committing murder with common intention.

Mr Amrin Amin, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs, said: “Clearly, there is scope for us to work together to do more.”

He was speaking on Tuesday (Oct 15) to public entertainment stakeholders as he opened the second edition of the police’s “smart clubbing” campaign. 

Last year’s inaugural campaign was aimed at reducing a wider range of crimes — such as violent crimes, theft and outrage of modesty — as molestation cases showed an increase. Among other initiatives, employees at nightspots were trained to be more vigilant towards those who are too intoxicated to take care of themselves.

The focus then was for party-goers to take “basic precautions” to prevent themselves from becoming victims of crimes, Mr Amrin said.

Several entertainment outlets, who have been involved in the campaign since last year, have taken steps to curb crime on their premises.

Bar Rouge at Swissotel The Stamford, has in place a policy for staff members not to serve alcoholic drinks to highly intoxicated patrons. It also deploys security personnel to proactively look out for crime and patrons in need of assistance, and to intervene if necessary.

Clarke Quay’s Zouk and Marina Square’s Bang Bang have set up holding areas on their premises for highly intoxicated patrons to rest and sober up.

“I believe these measures benefit not only the patrons, but also the image, reputation and business of the local nightlife industry,” Mr Amrin said.

WATCH GROUPS TO BACK UP THE POLICE

To further curb violent crime as part of this year's campaign, the police will form support networks with clusters of neighbouring public entertainment outlets to act as “additional eyes and ears” for each other.

Through these networks, outlets can alert each other about potential troublemakers or suspicious characters in the vicinity and the police may be called in early to keep patrons safe, Mr Amrin added.

Twenty-one nightspots and four associated partners, including Sentosa Development Corporation and the Singapore Nightlife Business Association, have committed to taking part in this initiative called the Public Entertainment Industry Safety and Security Watch Group.

As a group, they will be on constant contact to share information about evolving crimes and terror threats.

The aim is also for nightspots located in the same area to work more closely together on this front.

One partner which has subscribed to the watch group is Singapore River One, which had already taken the initiative to set up a WhatsApp group chat among outlet operators in the Singapore River precinct to share information on safety and security measures.

Mr Amrin said that besides the emphasis on preventing violent crime during this year’s campaign, there is also the need to enhance the industry’s security processes to counter acts of terror.

Noting that regional terrorist threats remain high and crowded places are “attractive targets” for terrorists with the aim of maximising damage, Mr Amrin said: “This is not limited to preventing crime, but to also enhance the (public entertainment) nightspots’ security processes to counter the continued threat of terrorism.”

He cited two examples from 2017: The attack at Manchester in the United Kingdom during Ariana Grande’s concert where a suicide bomber detonated a home-made explosive that killed 22, and the stabbing rampage at London’s Borough Market area that killed eight.

Data of other crimes here showed that the number of molestation cases dropped by 17 per cent in the first eight months of the year — a U-turn after cases shot up by 37 per cent between the first halves of 2017 and 2018.

Similarly, the number of theft cases shrunk by over a quarter.