AT THE HEART OF SPF:
Socially Responsible Individuals

by Ms Nur Azkiya

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has made tremendous progress in its pursuit of
organisational excellence with the attainment of several other accolades after the
Singapore Quality award in 2002. While SPF strives to continuously improve itself to
achieve world-class standards, it is also fully committed to fulfill its societal responsibility in caring for the community.

SPF recognises that it is responsible not only for upholding the law and protecting life and property, but also in helping the less privileged. Through embarking on initiatives and activities that are beneficial to the society and community, it hopes to enable the less fortunate to live better lives. It also aims to develop the ‘heartware’ of its officers, to nurture them into caring individuals, not just effective professionals.

To provide a more structured approach to implementing the various community initiatives and activities, SPF adopted the Societal Responsibility (SR) Framework in 2001. Under this framework, SPF’s SR efforts are organised into four thrusts: Community Programmes, Organisation Development and Policing, Environmental Protection, and Sports and Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle. The Committee on Societal Responsibility (CSR) was also formed in the same year to consolidate and coordinate SPF’s SR activities under the SR Framework.

Community Programmes

Seven years on, SPF’s SR efforts have grown both in scale and depth. In terms of community programmes, SPF has graduated from organising four force-wide fund-raising and charity events in FY 2001 to 64 force-wide as well as unit-level SR activities and events in FY 2006. This would not have been possible without the individual units’ commitment towards SR. In fact, more than 15 units in SPF conducted at least one community and green activity a year in FY 2006 with 25% of staff having participated
in an SR event, an increase of 5% as compared in 2005.

At the force-level, SPF continued to show strong support for Community Chest through its annual fund-raising efforts. In FY 2006, SPF raised over S$400,000 for beneficiaries under the Community Chest. One such event was the SPF Charity Gala Dinner, which saw eight SPF officers performing with artistes from Fly Entertainment in a musical specially created for the charity event. SPF also raised over S$20,000 through the SPF Heart Bus Project, in support of the President’s Challenge.

Besides SR efforts at the force and unit level, FY 2006 also saw SPF officers doing their part for the community by making contributions to the Community Chest SHARE programme. Individual contributions to the SHARE programme in FY 2006 came up to over S$300,000, and the participation rate was maintained at an average of 95% over the last few years.

Organisational Development and Policing

SPF’s fulfillment of its societal responsibility is not confined to just within Singapore’s borders. Many foreign police forces and organisations have come all the way to Singapore to learn from SPF its best practices. SPF key officers have also travelled regionally and internationally to share their expertise and knowledge with foreign counterparts on community policing, organisational excellence and service quality amongst other topics. In addition, SPF has been active in the international policing arena with its participation in several United Nations Peacekeeping missions. In the wake of the Asian Tsunami that took place in 2005, SPF has formed Operation Vanguard to provide assistance to countries struck by disaster.

Beyond its SR Framework, SPF
aims to promote the spirit of
volunteerism amongst its officers.
The organisation hopes to cultivate
officers who have the heart to
extend additional services to the
social service sector.

Environmental Protection

SR goes beyond the community and includes responsible behaviour and respect for the environment. In June 2006, SPF organised the annual SPF Green Month in conjunction with Police Week. One of the ‘green’ activities was the Green Transport Day which had an overall participation rate of 26%, a 7% increase from 2005. Another was SPF Green Competition for FY 2006 which saw the Police Coast Guard (PCG) emerge as the overall champion, with Traffic Police and Tanglin Police Division clinching the second and third places respectively. In the same month, the Criminal Investigation Department also implemented a pilot project on a more environmental-friendly method of saw cutting and grinding unwanted optical discs seized from police raids instead of incineration. The Police Logistics Department (PLD), on the other hand, initiated the formal appointment of Division Environment Executives (DEEs) from each SPF unit, who would work closely with PLD’s Green Secretariat to actively promote the ‘green’ culture among their units and engage officers on the ground in all ‘green‘-related activities.

Sports and Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle

SPF is an active promoter of sports under its SR Framework. Its officers are encouraged to participate in professional sports at the national and international levels. In football, SPF was champion in the Government Services Football Tournament held on 30 August 2006. SPF was also the champion in the Singapore Hockey Federation Premier League and garnered championships in the Singapore Open in the Individual and Team categories for semi-auto pistol as well as the Individual and Overall Team categories for service revolver. Internationally, SPF’s Police Sports Association also sent a contingent of 87 athletes to the World Police and Fire Games held from 16 to 25 March 2007 in Adelaide. SPF managed to secure a total of 31 medals, of which 16 were gold, seven silver and eight bronze.

Volunteerism

Beyond its SR Framework, SPF aims to promote the spirit of volunteerism amongst its officers. The organisation hopes to cultivate officers who have the heart to extend additional services to the social service sector.

Since the launch of the SPF Volunteer Centre in 2006 at the Old Police Academy, the Centre has grown steadily to its current strength of over 200 volunteers. Some of these volunteer officers helped out at various force-wide charity events as well as at events organised together with external voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs).

The SPF Volunteer Centre continues to establish and forge closer links with various VWOs such as the Handicaps Welfare Association and Yayasan Mendaki. Such close links allow these VWOs to tap on the SPF’s volunteers through its Volunteer Centre. Its officers can register their participation for the various charity or community events published on the SPF Intranet by the Volunteer Centre.

As a commitment and pledge to the community, SPF will continue to fulfil its social responsibilities, over and above its core services.