<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Dec 27, 2008
POLICE EMERGENCIES
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Are responses slower now?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->ON SUNDAY evening, my friends and I heard a woman's desperate screams followed by the sound of male shouts from the thick growth under the PIE flyover over Rifle Range Road.
I dialled 999 and the operator replied that a patrol car would be dispatched. I did not do more because it was getting dark and I was alone with two women. When the screams continued, I dialled 999 again, and was told that an officer had already been dispatched. About 15 minutes later, I called a third time to ask where the officer was but was told that an officer had already been dispatched.
By the time a police staff sergeant arrived at 7.30pm, the area was pitch dark and the screams had stopped. He apologised and explained that he was attending to another case and the police station could not dispatch anyone else. It was obvious he had tried his best to arrive at the scene as fast as he could. He spent 15 minutes combing the area before returning and telling us that he had radioed for more resources as he had not found anything. We left after my particulars were taken down.
When I was studying in Australia, there was an attempted break-in at my house while my housemate and I were inside. We called the police and were told that no resources were available and that we should take the necessary precautions by locking and securing all entrances.
The police finally arrived an hour later. I remember my housemate and I saying that such a slow response would not happen in Singapore. Ten years on, I am not so confident of my impression.
More police posts are being closed or operating only during certain periods of the day. Fewer police officers are patrolling our neighbourhoods on bicycles.
Has it come to the point whereby the police take more than 40 minutes to reach the scene of a potentially serious crime as my experience on Sunday has shown? Is the closure of police posts the reason for slower responses? Yong Sing Wee
POLICE EMERGENCIES
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Are responses slower now?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->ON SUNDAY evening, my friends and I heard a woman's desperate screams followed by the sound of male shouts from the thick growth under the PIE flyover over Rifle Range Road.
I dialled 999 and the operator replied that a patrol car would be dispatched. I did not do more because it was getting dark and I was alone with two women. When the screams continued, I dialled 999 again, and was told that an officer had already been dispatched. About 15 minutes later, I called a third time to ask where the officer was but was told that an officer had already been dispatched.
By the time a police staff sergeant arrived at 7.30pm, the area was pitch dark and the screams had stopped. He apologised and explained that he was attending to another case and the police station could not dispatch anyone else. It was obvious he had tried his best to arrive at the scene as fast as he could. He spent 15 minutes combing the area before returning and telling us that he had radioed for more resources as he had not found anything. We left after my particulars were taken down.
When I was studying in Australia, there was an attempted break-in at my house while my housemate and I were inside. We called the police and were told that no resources were available and that we should take the necessary precautions by locking and securing all entrances.
The police finally arrived an hour later. I remember my housemate and I saying that such a slow response would not happen in Singapore. Ten years on, I am not so confident of my impression.
More police posts are being closed or operating only during certain periods of the day. Fewer police officers are patrolling our neighbourhoods on bicycles.
Has it come to the point whereby the police take more than 40 minutes to reach the scene of a potentially serious crime as my experience on Sunday has shown? Is the closure of police posts the reason for slower responses? Yong Sing Wee