The Singaport Police Department is lean but, efficent. Their approach to law enforcement is much different and more strict than in the United States. Modeled after the Japanese law enforcement community, they may well be where policing is headed in the future.
First off, my visit to the Singapore Police Central Division Police Headquaters in downtown Singapore attest to that. There were several layers of hardcore security at their beautiful headquarters building. There was a pop-up barrier that could stop a Mac truch but, there were also 3 foot high continous concrete, dirt filled tree and bush containers along the curb. There were also 12" metal posts at short intervals than could also stop speeding vehicles, close to the building's walls and windows.
There was security officers at the drive entrance and numerous guards and barriers just inside the doors. The next layer required me to turn over my passport and get a visitor pass card and lanyard. Next level was further inside to a civilian counter to ask to talk to a police officer, which to this point I had yet to see. Finally after waiting a while and much confusion about which department or police officer handles my type of request, I got to met Officer Hafeez.
He is over the Central District's equivant to a community relations unit. This is outside the regular patrols. They have close relationships with groups, families and other members of the community. They help resolve some issues and know where trouble is coming from before it gets out of hand.
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| It would be hard to get a truck with explosives this close to HQ. They take security very sriously. |
A regular cop, he was happy to show me around and talk to me about his department. I couldn't help but notice all the civilian police personnel. Hafeez said many jobs on the department are handled by non-commissioned people, that regular police officers are not used for most of the administravtive duties of which there are many in Singapore.
Their laws are strict and carry heavy penalities compared to the U.S. This is the basis of their system, in that citizens know how strict they are in criminal matters as well as infractions. Drug trafficing will get you the death penality. Graffiti will get you caned, as the U.S. boy was we protested his punishment as inhumane. Fines run up to $1000 for littering and urinating in an elevator will set off a urine detector, close the elevator doors until the police com to arrest you.
NYC and Singaport have about the same population. NYC has about 40,000 police officers, Singapore about 9000 regular police officers and about 20,000 Police National Servicemen or PNS officers. PNS are constripted from young men for national service for 2 years, mostly the military but a good deal go to police and other public services.
PNS are used at security points and details such as the cruise terminal and other jobs not requiring a lot of law enforcement training, although many do eventually move over as regular police officers. They are armed and trained, just not in criminal justice or investigations. I ran into a group of them at the cruise port, looking like they didn't know what they were doing and all very young. It was after I visited the police hedquarters that their role was explained.
The security around the police headquarter was extensive and it was all civilan security officers. They have had serious terrorism problems and must always be on guard. It took a while to get through these security layers to get to an actual police officer.
Hafeez told me their drug problem was with manufactured drugs and less so with smuggled drugs like marijuna and cocaine. I guess with a death penalty for drug smuggling, that makes sense. They do have an unusual smuggling problem I didn't expect: cigarettes. They are much cheaper just outside Singapore and not nearly as taxed as in Singapore. The mark up is high and profitable.
There are laws against chewing gum, being gay, for spitting, for not flushing a public toilet and walking around your own house in the nude. That is considered pornography with is also completely illegal in any form including some stories in women's magazines. However, all of this combines to make Singapore a very safe place to live.
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| Bad photo but, guard was in process of telling e I couldn't take pictures in restricted areas at the port of entry from the cruis ship. You can see they take security seriously in Singapore. |
The way liberals and political correctness are going we might end up laws like these on personal behavior. We also see the movement in the U.S. of fewer police officers and more extnsive use of civilians in strictly non-commissioned areas such as administration, training, traffic investigation and enforcement, and many other areas.
When I got to Hafeez it was like the comradery of all the police agencies I've visited around the world. In Singapore, it just took a while to get to him. I hope he reads this post and communicates with me. I now have Facebook friends with police officers from five different countries.
