DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Singapore Police Force Workplan Seminar 2024

Minister of State Sun Xueling,
Commissioner Hoong Wee Teck, 
SPF and Home Team colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen, 

A very good morning. 

Most of you would know that I started my public service career in the SPF in 1980, and spent 15 meaningful years in the Force. 

Some of you might also know that Commissioner Wee Teck and I were colleagues, and we worked together on various projects. 

So it is very special for me to be back here to join you for this year’s workplan seminar, and to see many old friends and colleagues. 

When I started my career, I served at the frontline, and experienced first-hand the dedication and resourcefulness of our men and women in blue. 

I learnt many valuable lessons, which I carried into my subsequent years in the public service and in political office. 

Let me take the opportunity to share some reflections with you today.

This year’s theme “Future-Ready SPF – Cyber and Beyond” is very appropriate.  Indeed, Singapore’s circumstances, and thus policing, have evolved with time. 

In the 1950s and 60s, crime and corruption were serious problems, driven by triads and secret societies. 

This deterred investors from investing in Singapore, so our Founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew acted decisively, putting in place strict laws and tough enforcement that improved our law-and-order situation significantly. This provided the foundation for our economic and social development.

Nevertheless, more needed to be done. By the late 1970s, secret societies had morphed into street gangs, and street crimes like housebreakings, robberies and snatch thefts persisted. 

Then-DPM Dr Goh Keng Swee reviewed our policing approach, and decided that we should adopt the Japanese system of Koban Policing. 

Superintendent Tan Ngo Chew, was sent to Japan to study this, and with the support of the Japanese Government, we piloted the Neighbourhood Police Post (NPP) concept at Toa Payoh Police Division. 

Mr Heng Chee How and I, who were fellow recipients of the SPF Overseas Scholarship, also spent time in Tokyo after our studies to learn about the Koban system. 

This introduction of community policing in Singapore proved to be a decisive turning point.

The key to the Koban system was how the Police served and interacted with residents. 

They went out of their way to help children and seniors who needed support, safekeep lost property, and provided advice on crime prevention. The Kobans were also situated at high-traffic areas to maximise opportunities for interaction. 

The Japanese police officers were friendly faces within the community, which contrasted with the traditional image of tough law enforcement and our approach to policing then. 

So how did this “soft” approach work so well in Japan, and how could it be applied to Singapore? 

The key insight to effective community policing is what I characterise as the “99-1” approach. 

This blends the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ approach to tackling crime, by drawing on the basic fact that:

99% of people do not commit crimes. 

But the 1% responsible for offences from petty crimes like theft and shoplifting, to more serious organised crimes has to be dealt with decisively. 

For the 99% who do not commit crime, they could be potential victims of crime, and we should get them onboard to prevent crime. Our policing approach cannot alienate the 99% who should be our  allies in fighting crime. 

We should instead mobilise them to look out for one another, and to help the police investigate and solve crimes.

When the police and the public share a partnership of trust, we can better fulfil our mission of maintaining law and order, to provide a safe and secure environment for all. 

A friendly police officer who goes out of his or her way to help the public will gain trust. 

Once trust is established, our advice on crime prevention will be better heeded. We can also work with the community to develop solutions to prevent crimes, such as by enhancing security in public spaces. 

SPF’s implementation of community policing marked a decisive turning point in our policing strategy, and included the NPP system, the National Crime Prevention Council, neighbourhood watch groups, and even the Police Boys’ Club to engage youth. 

Many older officers will remember the significant cultural shift our officers had to go through. There was scepticism over whether the system would work – and some derided it as “No Power Police". 

Several years later, when I became Commander of Jurong Police Division, I was delighted to hand out appreciation plaques to members of the public who had shown courage and civic consciousness in assisting the police in arrests.

In fact, island-wide, one third of all crimes at that time were solved with the help of the public. 

And Commissioner Wee Teck tells me that this figure has remained high over the years, so well done!

I have spoken about the 99% of law abiding public, what about the 1% of those who commit crimes, from petty thefts to organised syndicates, and sophisticated white-collar crimes? 

The SPF has had to build new and deep capabilities to detect these crimes, and bring these criminals to justice. 

Back in the late 1980s when I served in the Criminal Investigation Department, we had dedicated and savvy investigators who had built up expertise in investigating serious crimes and dealing with hardcore criminals. 

We also invested in new capabilities like intelligence gathering and the Automated Fingerprint Identification System.  

In the 1990s, the SPF strengthened the Special Operations Command (SOC) and introduced the Special Tactics and Rescue unit to deal with riots and high threat incidents. 

Post-9-11, the SPF developed counter-terrorism capabilities such as bomb blast management and counter-assault measures. 

More recently, as the Finance Minister, I supported Minister Shanmugum’s proposal to set up the Home Team Science and Technology Agency, or HTX. 

We needed to harness cutting edge science and technology to support Home Team operations. 

I am glad to see the rapid progress that has been made, including forensic capabilities to solve serious crimes.

In short, SPF’s approach is a blend of the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ approach: 

A ‘soft approach’ of being approachable and helpful, to win the trust and support of the 99% of law-abiding citizens. 

With that trust, the 99% would join hands with us to fight the 1% who choose to commit crime. 

We then take the ‘hard’ approach of strict laws and cutting-edge capabilities, to deal with the hard core and serious criminals, together with a trusted and effective judicial system. 

The law-and-order situation will continue to evolve as our environment changes. One major change is digitalisation. Today, we live in a digitally enabled world, where activities like banking, shopping, and interacting with our friends and families are all done online. 

These have enhanced convenience and productivity, but have also exposed new vulnerabilities. 

The cross-border and anonymous nature of the internet allows cybercriminals to cause harm from even outside of national jurisdictions. 

Frontier technologies are being exploited by criminals – from audio and video deepfakes generated using artificial intelligence; to automated large scale robo-calling of scam victims; and identity-masking facilitated by cryptocurrency. 

These will transform the operating landscape for law enforcement globally. 

With these changes, crime in Singapore has shifted from the physical space to the digital realm. 

In 2023, scams and cybercrimes made up more than 70% of the total crime cases reported in Singapore, up from around 48% just in 2020. 

The volume and complexity of online crime will grow, as we make more digital transactions. 

The theme of this year’s workplan seminar “Future-Ready SPF – Cyber and Beyond” is very timely.

Building on our foundation of community policing, let me suggest three ways for SPF to deliver on its mission even better. 

First, SPF must continue to build and preserve trust, so that you can be a trusted partner for the public. I commend SPF for not just retaining but also deepening public trust over the decades. 

The latest 2021 SPF Public Perception Survey showed that 96% of respondents trusted the Police. 

Similarly, the 2020 study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) showed that 87% of respondents were confident or very confident in the SPF. 

These positive responses show the public’s belief that the SPF is competent, impartial, and proactive in conducting its mission of keeping residents and communities safe and secure. 

To maintain and deepen this trust, every SPF officer must continue to uphold the core policing values of Courage, Loyalty, Integrity and Fairness. 

As crimes migrate from the physical environment to cyberspace, officers at the frontlines must remain responsive and deliver tangible results. 

Cybercrimes need to be investigated and solved as quickly as physical crimes are, to minimise disruptions to the lives of citizens.

And at the same time, it is also about being empathetic and proactive when interacting with the community, particularly when dealing with victims of cybercrime. 

Just as the Police could not be expected to be omnipresent in the earlier days when street crimes were prevalent, in today’s physical-digital world, it is impossible for the SPF to be everything, everywhere, all at once. 

Community partnerships, the cornerstone of policing today, will be even more important in tackling cybercrime. 

These crimes tend to be less visible than physical crimes, and are best prevented by family and friends who can detect abnormal patterns of behaviour. 

The Anti-Scam Command and Anti-Scam Centre are good initiatives in modern-day community partnerships. 

The Anti-Scam Command works with more than 100 stakeholders including banks, cryptocurrency companies, and remittance service providers. 

It can swiftly freeze accounts and recover funds when a scam is reported. 

The Command also collaborates with telcos and online messaging platforms. Last year, more than 9,000 mobile lines and over 29,000 WhatsApp accounts suspected of scam involvement were submitted for termination. 

The Anti-Scam Centre takes the community partnership model one step further, by physically co-locating staff from the six major banks, GovTech, Carousell, and Shopee under one roof. 

This combined team works together to detect unusual activities and address them. 

Just over the past five months, the Centre removed more than 600 potential scam-tainted monikers and advertisements from Carousell and Shopee, to prevent the public from falling victim to e-commerce scams. 

I am happy to announce two new community initiatives today that will allow members of the public to step forward and partner the SPF in tackling cyber scams. 

The first is the new “Cyber Guardians on Watch” programme. 

Participants of the programme will receive timely alerts and advisories from the Police on cybercrime. 

They can then disseminate these to their families and friends to broaden awareness and raise caution. 

Our Cyber Guardians will, as a community, partner the police to look out for potential criminal activities in cyberspace. 

They can take action by alerting the SPF or reporting suspected malicious activities to digital platforms for their immediate action.

The second initiative is the Cyber Crime Prevention Ambassadors programme, which is modelled after the National Crime Prevention Council’s (NCPC) Crime Prevention Ambassadors scheme.

The programme will provide specialised training to equip volunteers with knowledge on the latest online crime trends. 

Ambassadors will partner the SPF to engage and educate the community on cybercrime prevention measures at roadshows and various community events. 

I encourage members of the public to step forward and sign up for these initiatives through the SPF and NCPC websites. 

I have spoken about deepening public trust and strengthening community partnerships. These will go hand-in-hand with SPF’s continued investments in building new capabilities to tackle new threats. 

The Workplan Seminar video, which we just watched, features some of the SPF’s new scam-fighting capabilities and initiatives to fight cybercrime. 

For instance, the Scam Analytics and Tactical Intervention System, or SATIS, 
is used to triage, assess, and disrupt scam websites swiftly, and will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse websites and determine if they are malicious. 

This has allowed the SPF and Internet Service Providers to identify and block more than 25,000 scam-related websites to date. 

Such tech solutions are most effective when paired with police officers who are cyber-ready, and able to deploy them to maximum effect.

SPF has put in commendable effort to raise the cyber competency of officers through specialised training in areas such as digital forensics and cryptocurrency tracing. 

In addition to upskilling its officers, the SPF will also be investing in attracting and retaining cyber talent through schemes like the Cyber Specialists Scheme and the Cyber Work-Learn Scheme.

I am happy to announce that the SPF will introduce a new Cyber Police National Service vocation later this year. 

This will allow the SPF to better tap on the expertise of our NSFs, who can be deployed to the Cybercrime Command (CCC) and the Anti-Scam Command (ASC) to detect and disrupt such crimes.

At the same time, I hope that this experience will be meaningful to NSFs and inspire them to deepen their expertise in the field, which would position them to seize new opportunities in our digital economy after they ORD. 

Let me now sum up, and summarise the key points:

Over the decades, our law-and-order situation has evolved, and so has our enforcement approach.

A major turning point was the introduction of community policing, best remembered as the NPP system. 

The key insight is 99-1: that 99% of our people do not commit crime, and we should mobilise and partner them, to be our friends and partners, if we are to be effective against the 1%.

Today, this partnership remains valuable, and public trust and confidence in the SPF remain high.

Over the years, we have also invested in building deep capabilities to be even more effective in tackling the 1% of those who commit crimes, especially serious ones. 

Today, in this digital age, we must continue to build on our foundation of community policing, and maintain trust with the public so that the Police continues to build effective partnerships. 

At the same time, the SPF must continue to deepen capabilities to tackle the most sophisticated crimes, including in cyberspace

In closing, I should also mention that I regularly meet overseas visitors and business leaders. Many of them commend us for maintaining such good law and order, and this enhances their confidence to invest in Singapore. This confidence creates good jobs for our people. 

The good work of each and every SPF officer has touched the lives of all Singaporeans, and visitors, in so many ways. 

So let me commend all our men and women in blue, regulars, NSmen, and volunteers, for sustaining public trust through strong partnerships with the community, and building up new capabilities to keep Singapore safe and secure!

I am confident that the SPF, with your commitment to build a Future-Ready Force, will continue to provide Singaporeans with a safe and secure home to raise their families, give businesses the confidence to invest and grow in Singapore, and attract overseas visitors to Singapore. 

So, thank you all for your hard work over the years, and I wish you all a fruitful seminar. 
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