Increasing demands take toll on men in blue????
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......so we finally know the real reason??...that they were overwork'ed....did they mentioned underpaid??.......and thus the more we should empathised with our Home team for losing MKS, the court escape & the passport foul up......poor sods...these Home Team chaps
tsk ts tskIncreasing demands take toll on men in blue 
By Teh Joo Lin & Arlina Arshad
A BAG left on an MRT station platform used to be something train station staff would be saddled with as part of their 'lost and found' service.
That was before 9/11.
Today, the police can be called in, the area cordoned off and, if need be, bomb-disposal experts summoned as well.
'It's a totally different ball game,' said Station Inspector Nazri Abdul Karim from the Bukit Panjang Neighbourhood Police Centre.
All angles have to be considered, without much extra time or resources.
And it is taking its toll on the men in blue.
'While difficult to quantify, the psychological and physical fatigue within the usual working hours is palpable', a police spokesman told The Straits Times.
A large part of the added strain on the force comes from the series of manpower-sapping security deployments they are called upon to provide when Singapore plays host to mega events, like last week's Asean Ministerial Meeting, which tied up some 2,000 officers for eight days, with security round the clock.
Although the demands on the force have gone up, the numbers have not.
There were 12,516 full-time officers in service last year, a slight drop compared to the 13,377 in 2004.
But over the years, Singapore's population has swelled.
The resident population hit 4.68 million last year as the number of foreigners here crossed the one-million mark for the first time.
Their arrival and their language and cultural differences add another layer to the complexity of the job of policing.
To help ease the load, the force turns to its pool of national servicemen and volunteers.
During the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in 2006, about 5,000 police reservists were recalled for an additional two weeks. The police also roped in about 700 voluntary special constabulary officers and 600 auxiliary police officers (APOs).
Duties have also been outsourced to private security agencies such as Certis Cisco and Aetos. Both companies reported higher demand for their services, resulting in Certis Cisco's APO force growing 41 per cent over the past seven years to reach over 3,600 officers.
At Aetos, the headcount has doubled to 2,500 men today compared to 2004, when it was formed.
However, not all police duties can be outsourced, said the Tanglin Police Division's Deputy Superintendent Poon Ngee, who added that the private security forces also had to be supervised by the police.
For some crowd-control duties, where the threat of a riot is possible, officers from the Special Operations Command, whose unique training cannot be replaced, are called in.
SI Nazri, an 18-year veteran, said that his workload had 'been increasing gradually' and he now puts in an extra two to four hours for every 12-hour shift.
'Every morning I leave home and, more often than not, it's a late night and my children are already asleep. They have asked me why I've to work on my day off,' he said.
Despite the stretched resources, Singapore's police force, with a lower officer-to-population ratio than Hong Kong and New York, manages to keep crime rates here lower than in those cities.
If that record is to stay intact, Dr Teo Ho Pin, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee on Law and Home Affairs believes the police force has to be expanded.
He said: 'I think we should increase by 20 to 30 per cent the existing workforce, coupled with the use of technology, to prepare for future security threats.'
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one open leg policy.. thousands different problems cascades.
Pls la stop the pop growth.... its getting really stuffy here already
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... why do they always make it sound like Singapore is similar in size as the USA...?
...everything they are EXPECTED to do is so arduous, difficult, and short handed...
... is Singapore really that big and too large to handle? Or maybe Police needs a Pay Hike also?
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maybe they should stop wasting man hours trying to harass CSJ and gang, allowing them to practice their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, assembly and association.
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Originally posted by ivebeenhad:
maybe they should stop wasting man hours trying to harass CSJ and gang, allowing them to practice their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, assembly and association.
hahaha...they would save alot of manpower, each time it's like at least 1-2 dozen officers attached to CSJ.
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allocation of manpower in the wrong areas...
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Tis is wat i know from wat is happening in the police la...
There is a shortage of manpower for some time. Either they r bad at recruiting people or they wanna cut cost by recruiting lesser people. The manpower is stretched. In the team, u cannot determine when u can clear your leave because they only have a few extra men out from the minimum requirement. In fact a lot of people cannot manage to clear their leaves every year. The shift goes as Morning 12 hours shift followed by night 12 hours shift followed by 2 days off. Because of the drawing of arms, returning of equipment and briefing etc, it is likely u work about 14-15 hours a day.
So far it is still ok until u realise u have to do investigation. They have to do it when it is their off day. Tat makes it lesser than 2 off day every cycle. Tat is why people can notice policemen seems too eager in trying to make a case become "No offence described" by "convincing" the people to drop the case. Furthermore after 911, they also have to do extra duties such as guarding the VIP in their private function. Wat do they do, they just act like security and waste their off time. The saddest thing is, there is no compensation for such duties. In the private sector, u have to give overtime pay or extra hours for blue collar workers. However in the police, it is really nothing. U can spend the whole 12 hours doing police duty and u get nothing. Since they get nothing, wat is the point of working hard ? So they just try to slack and push job to other people whenever possible. So all the extra duties r really eating into your personal time and the upper management seems eager to drain the people since there is nothing they can do. At the very least, it is the manpower fault for allocating too little people to do tis type of job.
Tat is why I think the policemen and ministry of home affair have lesser and lesser morale. If u ask my frank opinion, I think the commisioner and minister really did not do a good job. They probably think of nothing but trying to cut cost, resulting in overwork and under compensated staff. Perhaps it is the economic crisis and the people desire of cost cutting of gov expenditure tat resulted in tis situation.
My recommendation is very simple, give OT pay for every hour wasted in police duties.
Just my two cents worth
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wks, pls take note.
so far, you have proven to be the weakest link in the lee regime. i will be surprised if you are not `retired' by the next election.
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when i went with my mum t report loss of her passport at NPP, the police officer assured us that there would be no fine and claimed that passport should be valid for 10 years (recent news already said new passports will only be issued with 5 yrs validity), handed us a form to fill up to apply for new passport. when i brought the form back to read, it said clearly that there'd be fine for loss of passport.. so ironic..they know NUTS.
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what fine?
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It's dangerous to make decisions with ill informed facts.
If you have a constant habit of misplacing your passport, after the 2nd or 3rd replacement, they can refuse your application for a replacement passport (at least that was the practice last year).
