Quora Answer: What is Law Enforcement in Singapore Like?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What is law enforcement in Singapore like?”

The law enforcement philosophy is neighbourhood engagement.  That means the police engage in what is called communal policing, forming bonds with the community through initiatives such as the neighbourhood watch.  The emphasis is to be approachable, so public relations and customer service is heavily emphasised.

Due to the small geographic area and population density, there are a lot of cameras in vulnerable places such as lift landings and stairwells.  Part of policing is to ensure that the place is well lit at night, and nothing is left broken and disrepair.  This pristineness discourages anti-social behaviour.  In places that are prone to disorder, or would be vulnerable to a terrorist attack, we have what we call in the Force, “making police presence felt”.  There are foot patrols to discourage incidents before they even happen.  There is also a special command that patrols the public transport system.  These patrols are paramilitary in nature.

The real strength of the police force is actually the police intelligence, which works very hard to identify threat patterns before they become an incident.  They coordinate with other intelligence agencies where required.  As such, aside from the foot patrols, police presence is not ubiquitous.  Having too much police presence has the opposite effect, and gives the subconscious impression that a place is crime prone, and that actually discourages further anti-social behaviour since the police cannot be everywhere.