2026 outlook: What’s next for crime – and the top stories of 2025

SINGAPORE - Scammers will face tougher penalties in 2026 with the

introduction of mandatory caning for syndicate members and recruiters

.

The enhanced punishments for scams, passed in Parliament on Nov 4, will also see discretionary caning of up to 12 strokes for money mules – individuals who provide their bank accounts, SIM cards or Singpass credentials to scammers.

New and permanent legislation will also be introduced in 2026 to combat vaping, even as the temporary classification of the sedative etomidate as

a Class C controlled drug

under the Misuse of Drugs Act expires in February.

Enhanced penalties for speeding

will kick in on Jan 1, 2026

, with motorists who speed to face more demerit points and higher composition sums.

Vaping, scams and violent crimes dominated headlines in 2025. The Straits Times looks back at some of these stories.

Vaping and Kpods

Vaping, which was pushed by advocates as a tobacco replacement option despite a ban introduced in 2018, has

become a drug issue

.

ST was aware of reports of young people openly using vapes which were laced with drugs including etomidate, also known as Kpods.

Videos also emerged online, showing vape users who could barely walk and were behaving erratically after using Kpods.

ST

launched an anti-vaping campaign

, Vaping: The Invisible Crisis, on July 13, to contribute to the fight against the scourge.

Several stories were published as part of the campaign to highlight the dangers of Kpods. One of them was of Mr Delfard Tay, a man whose

19-year-old daughter Shermaine died following an addiction to Kpods

.

Tests on seized vapes in July found that

one in three was laced with etomidate

.

As public concern grew, the authorities moved to stem the problem, introducing

stiffer measures from Sept 1

.

Enforcement efforts were also ramped up, with

more than 10,000 officers

across the different government agencies empowered to take action.

Intensified disciplinary measures, which range from detention to withdrawal of scholarships, were also introduced by schools and institutions. These are on top of the penalties imposed by the Health Sciences Authority.

On average,

about 3,100 students were caught

for vaping offences annually from 2022 to 2024 in mainstream schools.

At institutes of higher learning – the Institute of Technical Education, five polytechnics and six autonomous universities – about 800 students were caught annually during the same period.

At the same time, schools

stepped up preventive efforts

, rolling out anti-vaping education packages.

These include science lessons on the harms of etomidate, Character and Citizenship Education lessons on resisting temptation, and training student leaders to encourage their peers to embrace a vape-free lifestyle.

The Central Narcotics Bureau launched its first major operation against a Kpods syndicate on Sept 10,

arresting eight people

.

There were also

multiple raids in which vapes were seized

.

From the time the new laws kicked in to Dec 18, more than 2,700 people were caught and fined for vaping offences.

In total,

257 of them were found to be etomidate abusers

. As part of the new anti-vape regime, at least 162 have been placed in rehabilitation programmes.

Singaporean scammers

For the first time, Singaporeans were identified as the ringleaders of overseas scam syndicates.

In September, Singapore Police Force officers took part

in raids in Cambodia

to bust a syndicate led by a young Singaporean.

A number of syndicate members were arrested in Singapore after they returned from Cambodia.

The police later

issued warrants of arrest

against 27 Singaporeans and seven Malaysians suspected of being involved in the syndicate.

Checks by ST found that the alleged masterminds of the scam operation were

two Singaporean brothers and their cousin

.

So far, of those wanted,

two Singaporeans and one Malaysian

have been caught.

Separately, a Singaporean was caught in a

raid on scam compounds in Myanmar

in November.

Scam losses in Singapore since 2020 have crossed the $4 billion mark, with

at least $750 million lost

in the first 10 months of 2025.

This has prompted enhanced penalties and stricter laws, including the introduction of mandatory caning – of at least six strokes and up to 24 – for scammers, syndicate members and recruiters.

The authorities said they had recently observed an increase in the number of scammers exploiting Facebook to run impersonation scams using videos or images of key government office-holders in fake advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages.

This led to the police

issuing Meta with an implementation directive

under the Online Criminal Harms Act, requiring it to target scammers impersonating government office-holders on Facebook or risk a fine of up to $1 million.

This was the first time such an order has been issued by the police to an online platform to tackle scams.

Speeding

Speeding violations

surged by 45.5 per cent in the first half of 2025

from the same period the previous year, with more than 118,000 offences recorded.

Despite repeated warnings and stepped-up enforcement, the Traffic Police said there has been little improvement.

To tackle the worrying problem, motorists caught speeding from Jan 1, 2026, will be slapped with

more demerit points and higher composition sums

.

Motorists who go over their vehicular or road speed limit can expect to receive between two and six more demerit points.

Those caught driving not more than 20kmh above the speed limit will receive six demerit points, up from the current penalty of four demerit points.

Motorists who go over the speed limit by 41kmh to 50kmh will get 18 demerit points, up from the current 12 points. They will also be charged in court.

Those who go over the speed limit by more than 50kmh will have their licence immediately suspended.

The first day of the new year also marks the deadline for the

mandatory installation of speed limiters

for 2,485 lorries.

The Traffic Police said that as at Dec 11, about 495 of these lorries have yet to do so.

First

announced in 2023

, the speed limiter regime requires all lorries with a maximum laden weight (MLW) of between 3,501kg and 12,000kg to be fitted with a speed limiter that caps the speed at 60kmh.

Goods vehicles with an MLW of over 12,000kg are already fitted with such devices.

From 2026, all newly imported lorries with an MLW of over 3,500kg must be equipped with the device.

Existing lorries registered before 2018 must also have the limiter. Those registered in or after 2018 have up to 2027 to install the device.

Violent crimes

Seven murders were reported in 2025, with at least three of them involving knives.

Three of these murders happened within a span of just 21 days, from Oct 24 to Nov 13.

They include a man who

allegedly killed his younger brother

in a Boon Lay flat on March 11, another man who has been

charged with his mother’s death

in a Sengkang flat on June 1, and a woman who was

killed after noise dispute

in Yishun on Sept 24.

Physical crimes, like violent ones involving knives,

have been on the rise

, with 75 knife-related incidents reported in the first half of 2025.

This is compared with 59 cases in the same period in 2024, which saw 131 such incidents for the whole year.

On March 19, a woman allegedly 

used a chopper to attack someone

 on the first floor of People’s Park Complex in Chinatown. Three men were later found injured at the scene.

On Oct 26, a woman was arrested after she allegedly

attacked two people with a knife

at Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre. Two women and a man were injured.

Hours later in the early morning of Oct 27, a man

swung a karambit at police officers

who went to check on him in Bedok. The officers used a Taser to stop him and he was arrested.

Victims of crime

New laws have also been introduced

to better protect victims of crime.

For example, the maximum jail term for the fatal abuse of vulnerable victims was changed to life imprisonment or up to 30 years, up from 20 years’ jail previously.

The Government will also strengthen child protection processes in the light of the case of

four-year-old Megan Khung

, who died in 2020 after more than a year of abuse by her mother and the woman’s then boyfriend.

A review panel had found

a series of breaches

by agencies in the handling of the case, including a Child Protective Service officer who failed to log calls from the girl’s pre-school seeking help, and police officers who did not follow procedures.

Victims of online harms will also receive better protection after the 

Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Bill

 was passed in November.

The new laws pave the way for the set-up of a

one-stop government agency

by June 2026 that can direct platforms to take down harmful content.

The new agency is expected to handle cases involving cyberbullying, sexual harassment, intimate image abuse, child abuse material, impersonation, deepfakes and hate speech.