Home Ministry to beef up police presence in neighbourhoods - Cops on bikes

By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia, 1 Mar 2012

The Ministry of Home Affairs is transforming the way it fights crime in the neighbourhoods.

Over the next few years, it is spending about S$160 million to enhance police presence on the ground, so that officers can better prevent, deter and detect crime.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean noted that the overall crime rate has been falling for the last six years.

In 2011, numbers dropped seven per cent from 2010, to 606 crimes for every 100,000 residents - a 20-year low.

But new demographic challenges have emerged, bringing changes in societal attitudes - and these require a new response.

Hence, Mr Teo said, the need to rethink domestic safety and security concerns.

"One way of dealing with crime is to build fences and walls around our precincts and blocks, cordon off HDB void decks, and create gated neighbourhoods," he said. "But doing so does not only keep undesirable people out, but will also lock ourselves in, and separate and segregate communities. This will fundamentally change the way we organise our communities, and change our social fabric," he said.

Instead, changes will be introduced to the community policing model starting from May in Bukit Merah East and Tampines.

The reorganisation is expected to be completed in end-2015.

Community Policing Units will be expanded at each Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC), where police go on more foot and bicycle patrols on specific beats.

The idea is to get them more familiar with their precinct, and to build closer relationships with residents and businesses.

A crime strike force - similar to those currently situated in divisional headquarters - will also be created in each NPC, thus bringing crime-fighting capabilities closer to the ground.

More CCTV cameras will also be mounted in HDB blocks, multi-storey carparks and key public areas to help police with their investigations.

The reorganisation of the NPCs will require more manpower, and each centre will be given an additional 13 officers.

On the whole, about 450 additional police officers will be recruited over the next few years.

Changing societal attitudes and the way they are being expressed online have also created new challenges for authorities.

"Some segments of our population also feel that they should be allowed to express their views in an unfettered way," Mr Teo said. "On the other hand, when remarks or acts denigrate another culture, nationality or religion, members of the public and those groups who are the target want action to be taken against the perpetrators. With the Internet and social media, a single thoughtless comment can have immense reach and severe consequences."

Laws currently do not cover cyber harassment, and the Ministries of Home Affairs, Law and Information, Communication and the Arts are working to review this.

Besides studying existing laws in countries like Australia, India and the UK, Mr Teo said authorities here are also considering civil remedies for those affected by wrongdoings which are not criminal in nature.

For instance, an aggrieved party should be able to protect himself from falsehoods spread on the internet when suing for defamation.

Given the ease at which online posts can go viral, the victim should also be able to obtain a timely injunction to order the removal of any offensive statements.

At a broader level, more powers are being sought to deal with organised crime, given the increasingly transnational nature of crime.

The ministry will be tabling an Organised Crime Act to allow authorities to better deal with syndicates, and is also reviewing the Casino Control Act. 

Cops and community riding a bicycle for two
Editorial, The Straits Times, 3 Mar 2012

ADVOCATES of community policing say it is the future. But since such programmes were implemented here and elsewhere from the 1980s, is it a case of the police stepping back to the future? Singapore's revamped Community Policing System indicates that the focus on the community is as relevant here now as it was in 1983 when the Neighbourhood Police Post system was introduced and later when Neighbourhood Police Centres were formed.

The underlying belief has been time-tested in many jurisdictions, namely that the police should not be just reactive, but actively project their presence in the community both as a deterrent and also to be consultative, taking into account the needs of the public and working with the community to solve local problems.

Doubtless, a more visible police presence will be welcomed by many, as cops return to the bike patrols of yore with a difference - they will now look more approachable in shorts and tees, a la the officers in the once-popular TV series, Pacific Blue. Putting 450 extra officers on the beat is not an insubstantial allocation of resources. This raises the question: How effective will the measures be? The answer, of course, must be determined by how the objectives are framed. If sheer police presence is the goal, then embedding more officers on the ground can do the trick. But when more is expected of such efforts, then it pays to look at how value is being added to the services offered.

The skill with which front-line officers deal with the public and an intimate knowledge of the neighbourhood can make all the difference in promoting more interaction with residents, business owners and foreign nationals here. Ideally, officers will be allowed to stay long enough in an area to build a network of relationships. The experience elsewhere suggests that community policing works best when officers are given responsibility for a particular area and a degree of autonomy, so their job scope is not seen as narrow and their tasks are not perceived as low-value.

On their part, the public should have sensible expectations of community policing efforts. Earlier initiatives were credited with lowering the crime rate. But more foot and bike patrols and mounted video cameras will not eliminate crime or necessarily lead to quick arrests every time. Cops on bikes will really be on a bicycle built for two, with the community having to do as much of the pedalling. Continued vigilance by the public will make all the difference. Greater ownership of safety concerns and wider security issues by all in the community remains as critical as ever.