By MP for Aljunied GRC, Sylvia Lim
[Delivered in Committee of Supply on 5 March 2015]
Police forces have been harnessing technology to optimise their operations. Technology can enable policing to be sharper, faster, more convenient, and also less resource-intensive and more cost-effective. In Singapore, the need for technology to augment manpower is very acute, as we have limited markets for recruitment. Already, there is a heavy reliance on Malaysians in all three arms of security manpower – the state police, auxiliary police and unarmed private security. Whether we will eventually look to foreign manpower for this sector will be a highly charged topic.
In a 2013 study by consulting firm Accenture, entitled “Preparing police services for the future: Six steps towards transformation”, it was noted that across 17 police services in 16 countries, three core trends in policing had emerged. First, citizen expectations were rising about crime reporting, emergency response effectiveness and public involvement in policing. Secondly, budgets for police were being cut, meaning forces needed to be more cost-effective. Third, the criminal world was changing, becoming more organised, global, digital and operating across complex networks. To meet these trends, six transformational strategies were proposed, which included engaging citizens, empowering officers, and optimising ways of working.
Using technology and social media can help engage citizens, aid investigations and gather intelligence. As for aiding investigations, the Accenture report cited several interesting social media success stories elsewhere. For instance, in 2013 during the Boston Marathon bombings, Boston Police used Twitter for frequent and transparent updates to citizens, and the eventual capture of the bomber was aided by the use of social media.
As for optimising ways of working, another report surveying UK police forces (Wakefield, J. Future cops: How technology is set to change policing. BBC News 2 July 2013. Available online at http://www.bbc.com/news/
Such technologies enabled officers to spend more time on the ground instead of devoting time to office tasks. The public too, benefitted, as they would otherwise have to travel at their own expense to police premises to be interviewed. Monitoring social media also enabled investigators to solve crimes when groups of interest discussed plans and movements.
While technology and social media clearly bring benefits to policing, there are some pitfalls. One is information overload, where too much data is being fed to officers that they are unable to interact meaningfully with it. The other concern is that police officers might rely so much on technology so as to be “de-skilled” i.e. instead of police working on the ground and developing skills and experience in searching for information, they manage “by remote control”, blindly following information drawn from systems.
Has the Ministry assessed what manpower savings or cost efficiencies have been derived from such use of new technologies, and how policing capabilities have been enhanced? What new initiatives can we expect, and how will the police guard against their officers being “de-skilled” by over-relying on technology?