SINGAPORE - There will be one automated external defibrillator (AED) for every two Housing Board blocks islandwide by 2019, up from about 460 in eight constituencies now.

Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee revealed this on Friday (March 3), referring to efforts in strengthening partnership between the Home Team and community.

He was responding to MP Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok), who asked about community partnership in the fight against crime, corruption and terrorism.

Mr Lee added that about 2,000 residents have been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and AED skills under the Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) Save-a-Life initiative.

This aims to have trained community responders who can provide initial response to cardiac arrest cases outside hospitals.

"In the coming years, we hope to train more than 24,000 residents, or about 300 residents per constituency," he said.

In response to MP Desmond Choo (Tampines GRC), who highlighted the need for Home Team departments to work together, Mr Lee said the authorities are co-locating various departments' operation centres.

By the end of this year, he added, officers from the police, Central Narcotics Bureau, SCDF and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority will "sit side-by-side at the Police Operations Command Centre".

This enables "faster communication and information sharing, (enhancing) coordination of ground responses to incidents", he said.

Mr Lee added that the authorities are ramping up the use of technology, including using unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, in situations such as the recent fire in Tuas. After the fire was extinguished, a drone was used to locate hot spots in the large incident site, which were otherwise out of sight from firefighters.