SINGAPORE - The Home Team has an internal framework to deal with workplace harassment and grievances, and there can be no tolerance for any form of discrimination, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam.

On Feb 6, he delivered a ministerial statement on the allegations made by police Sergeant Uvaraja Gopal – about workplace discrimination – hours before he died by suicide in 2023.

Sgt Uvaraja, 36, died on July 21, 2023, after he was found lying motionless at the foot of a residential block in Yishun.

Before his death, the police officer had put up a Facebook post with several allegations, including that he had been bullied by his colleagues and was ostracised at work, and that some officers’ misconduct had been covered up.

Investigations found that some of the allegations were true and action was taken, while some were untrue.

Mr Shanmugam told Parliament that in the last five years, there have been 310 cases of allegations of workplace grievances including harassment, discrimination and misconduct within the Home Team departments.

The Home Team has about 29,000 regular and civilian officers, with another 7,700 full-time national servicemen officers. Of these, 10,000 regular officers and 4,000 full-time national servicemen officers are from the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

Each of the 310 cases was investigated and 131 of them were found to be substantiated. The offending officers were disciplined, said Mr Shanmugam.

He said: “There can be no tolerance for any form of harassment or discrimination in the SPF. The responsibility starts at the top, from me, down through MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) management, to the respective agencies’ leadership, and then the ranks below.”

He added that the police have reviewed their policies since the incident involving Sgt Uvaraja, and cases involving racial slurs or casual racism will now be investigated as misconduct and a disciplinary breach.

Mr Shanmugam said this was to ensure that there is a record of such incidents, and that disciplinary action will be taken and the officer’s subsequent behaviour will be closely monitored.

He said: “We cannot tolerate racism. Nor can we tolerate casual racism, snide remarks, jokes which are racist.”

The minister said a core pillar of the Home Team’s framework is training, and new staff are trained on the SPF’s code of ethics, workplace harassment and the actions to be taken if they are victims or witnesses.

Supervisors are specifically trained on ways to create a harassment-free workplace and support victims of workplace harassment, he added.

Every functional unit in the SPF has a discipline committee headed by the commander or director, and these committees can convene formal inquiries on their own. They can also refer issues to the police’s Internal Affairs Office (IAO) for further review.

The IAO is accountable to the Commissioner of Police.

Mr Shanmugam said all cases of sexual harassment and serious workplace harassment are referred to the IAO for investigation. If wrongdoing is uncovered, the police or the Public Service Commission will take disciplinary action.

Of the 310 cases investigated, nine were reported to the Public Service Division and ministry headquarters.

The minister gave two examples where action was taken.

The first was in 2019, when two female officers reported that a male officer had touched them inappropriately on multiple occasions.

The IAO investigated, and the man was prosecuted and jailed for nine months. He was dismissed from service.

The second, in 2020, involved a station inspector (SI) who made sexually insulting and offensive remarks against his fellow trainees while attending a course.

The course coordinator had told him to stop making such remarks, but he continued.

The IAO investigated, and the SI was charged at the Police Disciplinary Board, where he was found guilty and demoted a rank.

Mr Shanmugam added that of the 310 cases, six involved racial discrimination. Three were substantiated and action was taken.

He said: “The vast majority of our officers hold themselves to a very high standard of conduct, and we cannot allow a small minority who do wrong to colour the perception of the rest of the force.”

He also outlined MHA’s efforts to support the mental well-being of officers.

These included its in-house psychological services, peer support programmes where fellow officers are trained as para-counsellors, a 24/7 helpline managed in-house by its psychologists and para-counsellors, and external, agency-administered services.

The minister said officers can seek these measures without needing to report that they have done so, and they can attend workshops and courses on how to cope and adapt when dealing with operational and work stresses.

MHA conducts regular surveys through which officers can provide anonymous comments and feedback, including on workplace issues.

But Mr Shanmugam said there will be officers who do wrong.

He cited the recent example of Superintendent Lim Tswi-Tsen, a commanding officer from the Police Coast Guard who was convicted in court in October 2023, after he was caught drink driving during a check at a police roadblock.

The minister said: “When we come across these situations, action is taken, it’s dealt with publicly, no cover-up. But as I said, these are the exceptions, very small number of exceptions.

“The vast majority of our officers are honest, they have strong ethos, strong esprit de corps and integrity.”