History
National Service for all male Singaporeans began soon after Singapore separation from Malaya. All able-bodied male Singaporeans aged 16 and above are required to serve national service to prepare Singapore for national emergency and defense. The first batch of national service officers were enlisted into the Singapore Armed Forces in 1967.

The part-time Vigilante Corp (VC) and part-time Special Constabulary (SC) for the Police were established along full-time national service in 1967. These officers were only required to serve up to eight hours per week and one week-end per month over a twelve year period. They were also required to perform one week in-camp training per year.

Full-time Police National Service was introduced when SPF undertook the new responsibility of protecting vital installations. The undertaking of this new responsibility was consequent to the Laju incident in 1974 – please see inside story. On 24th July 1975, 8 years after the introduction of national service, the first intake of full-time Police National Service officers were enlisted. The full-time PNS officers served alongside the part-time SCs and VCs.

The part-time SC and VC scheme was not effective due to the very nature of part-time service. The scheme was abolished on 15th September 1982.

PNS officers were initially deployed alongside regular police officers in areas such as investigation, crime prevention patrols and protection of key installations.

In 1979, PNSmen, then known as reservists, were effectively deployed in teams of two officers to perform “vertical policing” in high-rise residential buildings which were sprouting all over Singapore.

In 1988, PNSmen were deployed in Multi-Task Group (MTG in short) to perform both peacetime and emergency functions. The peacetime functions include “vertical policing”, crowd control duties and crime-prevention patrols. Emergency functions include preparation and training for national emergencies and disasters.

In June 1994, the PNSmen force were re-organised into five functional groups : (a) protection of KINS (Key Installations), (b) patrol and Neighbourhood Police Post, (c) Light Strike Force (LSF), (d) Headquarter staff and (e) Service And Support Reinforcement Troops. Organising our PNSmen into functional groups allow specialised skills to be developed in these functional groups. PNSmen who had displayed leadership aptitude were also appointed as Key Appointment Holders (KAH) together with the formation of these five functional group. KAH comprises the posts of NS Commander, NS Head Operations and Training, NS Head Manpower Administration and Logistics (MAL) and OC KINS Group.

The first KINS troop was formed in October 1994 in J Division. By the end of 2003, there will be 31 operational KINS troops.

The capability of KINS troops to protect vital installations was put to the test when they were deployed to guard some vital installations soon after the incident on 11th September 2001. They proved effective. NSKU Command, under the command of Director PNS, was subsequently formed to give KINS troops better focus in terms of selection, training, deployment and welfare.

The administration of Police National Service human resource functions used to be part of Manpower Department’s (MPD) portfolio. In October 1995, the PNS Unit in MPD was upgraded to a full-fledged department (known as Police National Service Department) to manage the re-organisation of 20,000 PNS officers and developing personnel systems for these PNS officers. This enabled better focus on training, deployment, welfare and benefit, and discipline for the PNS population that Police National Service Department serves.


The Laju Incident

On 31st January 1974, a team of four terrorists comprising two Japanese Red Army (JRA) members and two Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members made a futile attempt to explode three oil tanks containing 5000 tonnes of crude oil each in the Shell refinery in Pulau Bukom. The aim of the JRA was to overthrow the Japanese “imperialist” government while the PFLP wanted to retaliate the “imperialist countries that were oppressing the Arab masses”.

In their bid to escape, they hijacked a passenger ferry named Laju and took the Singaporean crew members on board hostage. After six days of intense negotiations, the terrorists agreed to release the hostages in exchange for free passage to Kuwait with a party of guarantors which included Mr S R Nathan, the director of MINDEF’s Security and Intelligence Dept, Mr Yoong Siew Wah, the director of Internal Security Dept and Supt Tee Tua Ba, OC Marine.

On 8th February 1974, the four terrorists boarded the plane for Kuwait, together with the party of guarantors, thus ending the hijack incident.

After a review of the incident, it was decided that security at various vital installations had to be intensified and SPF was given this task.