Quora Answer: If Singapore is So Safe & Crime Free, What Do Their Policemen Do?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “If Singapore is so safe and crime free, what do their policemen have to do all day?”

The police have a lot of work to do.  It is because of that work, often unseen by the public, that keeps Singapore safe, and relatively crime free.

Every Monday, the heads of the various departments at every division and command meet to report on the crime and public safety situation.  They note trends, arrest reports, developing situations, places of interest, major events in their area, and so forth.  They also discuss the implementation of new technologies and techniques for future policing, and all the mundane matters of running a government department such as budget and manpower.  These are the “morning prayers”.

Every team, at the beginning and end of the shift, have briefings before they resume their patrol or work.  One of the things patrolmen would note would be lists of vehicles reported stolen, and they are very diligent in tracking them.  They also discuss suspects for crimes in their area, mostly mundane ones such as snatch theft or petty theft.  Investigation teams go through case reports, and assign follow-up work.  Planning teams are involved in securing the venue where VVIPs are expected to be, calling up manpower from the reservist pool for events such as international summits, and coordinating with other organs of state.

The police has a service standard for everything from seeing people at the counter, to calling complainants after each police report, to the time a case is resolved.  We are talking about hours and days, not weeks and months.  There is an incentive to solve cases quickly.

The police force engages is a tremendous amount of preventive work, to address underlying situations before they lead to criminal acts, from school and neighbourhood visits, to public engagement, to anti-crime advisories.  There are also enforcement campaigns targeting specific categories of crime, such as unlicensed moneylending to neighbourhood gang activities to shoplifting.  It is all this background work that keeps Singapore safe, and crime rates down.