SINGAPORE — Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean said last month’s security breach at the Woodlands checkpoint is “unacceptable”. He said there was a “serious error of judgement” on the part of the ground officers.

The officers involved, including their supervisors, will be disciplined.

Mr Teo, who is also deputy prime minister, gave a thorough account of the incident in Parliament today (Feb 17).

On Jan 17 at about 2pm, a woman arrived at Woodlands checkpoint in a Malaysian-registered car. She went past immigration by tailgating the car in front of her.

The officer in charge did not immediately trigger the alarm. It was sounded only two-and-a-half minutes later.

In the meantime, the woman cruised through the secondary check area. Again, another officer there did not sound the alarm.

Mr Teo said the officers did not follow standard operating procedures.

He said if the first officer had sounded the alarm faster than the two-and-a-half minutes she took, it would have triggered a lock down. This would have stopped the car from leaving the checkpoint.

The problem was compounded by the second officer, who also did not raise the alarm when the car did not stop for checks.

Added to this was that ground commanders from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and police classified the incident as an “immigration offence”, instead of “breach of border security”.

Mr Teo said this is an “error of judgement”.

As a result, police did not trigger an alert that would have immediately directed patrol cars to mount road blocks.

The ICA and police also did not issue a “heightened and persistent alert” with the description of the car and driver that would have alerted all ground forces.

Mr Teo added that police officers at the Police Cantonment Complex also “exercised poor situation awareness and judgement”.

Three days later, on Jan 20 at about 1.30pm, police received a “999” call from a taxi driver who said he was being followed by a Malaysian-registered car. On police’s advice, the taxi driver drove to a location outside the Police Cantonment Complex, with the car following him.

Mr Teo said when police officers tried to engage the woman in the Malaysian-registered car, she was unresponsive.

The woman then drove off. Police officers did not pursue her.

Forty-five minutes later, the woman went into the compound of the Foreign Affairs Ministry by tailgating another car.

She was finally arrested there for criminal trespass.

Following the incident, Mr Teo said both the police and the ICA will review existing SOPs to improve their coordination and responses. He added police will treat all checkpoint security breach cases as high-level security threats.

They will take necessary steps to locate the intruder, until such time the threat no longer exists.

Both departments will also conduct more frequent drills and joint exercises at the land checkpoints to maintain the officers’ vigilance and validate the emergency response plans.

In addition, the ICA will use more advanced technology and improved infrastructural design to reduce the reliance on human factors to trigger an immediate alert.

Mr Teo said the ground commanders involved have been redeployed to non-operational posts pending disciplinary action.

Their supervising officers will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, along with other officers involved in the incident. CHANNEL NEWSASIA