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ON ALERT: Special Operations Command personnel at the Asean Ministerial Meeting. -- PHOTO: AFP
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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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