Shanmugam: Home Team agencies to be housed under one roof

By the end of this year, officers from the Singapore Police Force, Central Narcotics Bureau, Singapore Civil Defence Force and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) will share their location at the Police Operations Command Centre as part of the Home Team Transformation 2025.

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam talked about the transformation mission at the Home Team Promotion Ceremony yesterday.

Speaking in front of 187 senior-ranking officers who received certificates of promotion at the first of such ceremonies this year, he said: "This will enable immediate, faster communication and information sharing among the Home Team Departments and we hope it will result in better coordinated ground responses."

Every frontline police officer will be given a smartphone to stay updated with timely and relevant information on the go.

Mr Shanmugam said: "As they arrive at their destination, they can pull out and look at a variety of data that is relevant. It will help provide our officers with more situational awareness."

ICA will also start to collect iris images at checkpoints.

"We will use multi-modal biometrics. That will help us in our identity verification, and at the same time we will increase the number of automatic clearance counters," he said.

Mr Shanmugam added that the Home Team will also be strengthening community partnerships.

He said: "The SGSecure outreach has done exceptionally well. Much better than I have dared to hope.

"And we will continue to use SGSecure to reinforce community mindshare about its role on response to counter terrorism issues."

... we will continue to use SGSecure to reinforce community mindshare about its role on response to counter terrorism issues. Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam

Other plans include stepping up partnership efforts with schools, parents and companies in preventive drug education and rehabilitation.

Mr Shanmugam said: "As Home Team leaders, we need to champion and drive the transformation, bring the plans to reality, and make sure that we bring the ground along with us, so that the transformation is actually realised on the ground.

"That really requires living the One Home Team concept. Sharing of information and intelligence, working together on joint operations, taking a life cycle approach to enforcement and rehabilitation, leveraging common technology and performing as one team."