Smallest Good Deed is Better Than The Grandest Intention
By ASP Lawrence Beins, Service Quality Officer, Service Development and Inspectorate Department

On Saturday, 9 April 2005 at about 7.30pm , SSgt Eileen Gway of Tampines Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) reported for work and started her night shift duties. She was rostered to perform patrol duties that night with Cpl Heng Ing Kiat. At about 11.45pm , they came to the Tampines Industrial Park at Block 9004 Tampines Street 93. On the third level of the block, she noticed that the door and grille of ARW Engineering Company was ajar. Sensing that something was amiss, SSgt Gway made a check of the premises and discovered that there was no one inside. She then informed the Ops Room of her findings and tried to contact the owner of ARW Engineering but to no avail. SSgt Gway found an open unit a few doors away and managed to borrow a padlock, which she used to secure the grille of ARW Engineering Company. She then left a message for the owner to pick up the key from Tampines NPC.

The following Monday, Mr Ang Choh Heng, Director of ARW Engineering received the message and proceeded to Tampines NPC to retrieve the key for the padlock. Mr Ang was so pleased that he wrote a letter of compliment to Tampines NPC, praising SSgt Gway for her thoughtfulness and for preventing possible losses to his company.

Commanding Officer of Tampines NPC, DSP Tan Kim Ling, is very proud of SSgt Gway. He said, “We have always encouraged our officers to go the extra mile in Tampines NPC as sometimes it doesn’t hurt to do a little more to help others. Eileen is one of those officers who have always done so and we are proud of her.” In the words of Jacques-Joseph Duguet, “The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.” It is important to realise that a little bit of effort from us often means a lot to the people we help.