November 01, 2021, 06:10 PM
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Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan responded to parliamentary questions today (Nov. 1) about police presence at Westlite Jalan Tukong dormitory on Oct. 13.
Situation was resolved without help of additional police units
Tan was answering a question from Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament Faisal Manap, who asked which Singapore Police Force (SPF) units were activated in the Jalan Tukang Westlite Dormitory incident, what were their roles, and whether any enforcement actions were taken at the site by these respective units.
He also responded to a question from WP Member He Ting Ru, who asked whether the situation at the Jalan Tukang Westlite Dormitory on October 13 warranted the "deployment" of riot police.
Tan said that on Oct. 13, the police responded to a call for assistance at the dormitory.
"The information received was that a group of workers were behaving aggressively, with potential for violence," he added.
Patrol officers from Jurong Police Division were then dispatched to the dormitory, where officers from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) were already engaging the workers.
Tan added that the officers from Jurong Police Division, together with the dormitory staff and officers from MOM, managed to resolve the situation.
Additional units put on standby, but not deployed
Tan said that other police units were put on standby after an assessment by the Jurong police officers:
"While the Jurong police officers were thus engaged, they also assessed that it was necessary to have other police units on standby in the event the situation became violent. And additional units were placed on standby."
However, Tan clarified that the additional units were not needed to be deployed, and that no arrests were made by the police during the incident.
SOC last deployed for public order incident in 2018
He also added that the police does not track the number of times its contingency forces have been activated to respond to public order incidents.
"Such activations may take place in a variety of situations, including management of large crowds that [may] turn disorderly, protests or riots," he said.
In response to He Ting Ru's question on how often and under what circumstances were the riot police deployed to respond to active situations in the last five years, Tan said that the Special Operations Command (SOC) were last activated in response to public order incidents on two occasions.
These incidents took place at the Singapore Boys' Home in September 2016 and September 2018.
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