Oral Answer, with reference to CEP, to Parliamentary Question on Home Team’s manpower situation

Synopsis

"... the strategy must always be that while we should do whatever is practicable to prevent an attack, we must at the same time assume that it can happen. We must therefore prepare ourselves to deal with its consequences. This is why we have invested so much energy in contingency and consequence management including shoring up the resilience of our people through the Community Engagement Programme."

Oral Answer to Parliamentary Question on the Home Team’s manpower situation and how MHA has attended to the findings of the Human Factors Study commenced in 2008, 16 Aug 2010

Ms Sylvia Lim:

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs whether he will provide an update on the Home Team’s manpower situation and workload and how the Ministry has attended to the findings of the Human Factors Study commenced in 2008.

Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Mr K Shanmugam:

Parliament has been informed in July 2008, MHA formed a team to study the human factor situation within the Home Team. These findings were reported to this House in 2008.

Since then, we have implemented a number of measures to address the findings. In particular, we have placed emphasis on ensuring that the quantity and quality of manpower resources are sufficient to handle the rising workload of the Home Team and on optimising the deployment of our limited resources.

Increasing Manpower Resources

We made a concerted effort over the past 2 years to increase manpower resources in the Home Team. SPF and ICA, for instance, recruited some 1,150 and 830 officers respectively in 2009. This compares with the 440 and 360 officers recruited respectively by the two departments in 2007. Overall, the Home Team’s operational force has increased from 15,000 officers in end-2007 to 17,000 officers in end-2009, a 13% increase.

The additional manpower has been deployed in areas which were found to be most taxed in the Human Factor Study. These include frontline policing in the Neighbourhood Police Centres, to which 410 more officers have been progressively deployed since 2008 with an additional 180 to be deployed by the end of this year, and the Checkpoints, to which 820 more officers have been deployed, with 200 more to be deployed by the end of this year.

As a result, staff well-being indicators have improved. For example, as compared to 2008, the percentage of police officers who forfeited vacation leave in 2009 dropped from 41% to 23% for Senior Officers, and from 19% to 11% for Junior Officers. The call-back rate for frontline shift Police officers, which is the percentage of officers who are recalled back to duty on their off-days more than twice a month, declined from 3.7% in the first half of 2009 to 1.6% in the second half. In ICA, the average amount of overtime performed by each officer declined by about 20% since 2008, even as contraband detection improved by about 40%. ICA has also been able to re-open the Old Woodlands Checkpoint to better cope with the increase in travellers, conveyances and goods over the years.

However, recruitment is only one side of the coin. Retention is the other. In recognition of the need to attract and retain better-calibre officers, particularly those with Diploma qualifications, we announced in May this year enhancements to the career path for Diploma Holders in the uniformed services in the Home Team. We have also developed a Home Team Specialist Scheme for those with special skills and training and who prefer to grow within the Home Team as specialists.

The majority of Diploma holders who join us can expect to progress to Senior Officer ranks by the time they are due to retire. These Diploma holders will increasingly be an important group in our frontline force. With the experience gained from exposure on the ground and rising through the ranks, they will form a critical core in raising the competency and professionalism of our frontline operational force.

As a result, our resignation rates have fallen. Amongst Senior Officers, resignation rates have declined from 3.2% in 2008 to 1.7% in 2009. The resignation rates for Junior Officers have declined from 3.5% in 2008 to 2.5% in 2009.

Our manning levels have gone up and the workload situation has improved. Whether we can sustain this trend or even see pressures reversing it in the light of an improving economy remains to be seen.

Managing Fatigue

Notwithstanding the improving situation, we have to be realistic that fatigue will always be an issue faced by our officers. Functions performed by Home Team officers are 24/7 and may require officers to respond urgently in the event of contingencies and operational needs. While we will ensure that our officers get enough rest by rostering them and scheduling off-days, the exigencies of service are such that our officers may nonetheless be required from time to time to put in extra hours or to give up their leave days. If left unchecked, fatigue can lead to a degradation of the performance of our officers.

Thus, apart from shoring up our manpower resources, fatigue management measures have been another part of our response to the Human Factor Study.
First, we have introduced electronic focus groups to collate feedback and learning points from officers on the ground. Unlike traditional face-to-face focus groups, electronic focus groups are conducted online to provide officers with anonymity and a safe environment to provide their honest and frank feedback of events. Electronic focus groups were used in APEC last year to conduct pre-APEC ground readiness sensing and post-APEC operations reviews. This year, they will be used for the YOG operations, and will continue to be a regular part of fatigue management strategy for large-scale deployments in the future.

Conclusion

Second, we have also rolled out a series of programmes to educate Home Team officers on individual and organizational fatigue management since February last year. Targeted at officers holding leadership and supervisory positions, these programmes run by the Home Team Academy’s Behavioural Studies Unit or BSU covered various topics ranging from individual signs and effects of fatigue to organizational strategies on fatigue management. Selected officers were also equipped with the knowledge and resources to conduct in-house fatigue management training for their respective departments. Additionally, to maintain Home Team officers’ awareness on operational fatigue, the BSU also designed and disseminated informational posters and cue cards and calendars containing tips on fatigue management across the Home Team.

I have given a snapshot of what we have done thus far to address the gaps identified in 2008. However, demands on the Home Team will continue to increase over time given the growth in the numbers of people and activities in our country, and the growing complexity of the security and law and order environment. Resources, on the other hand, are finite. The challenge is thus not just to ensure that the Home Team is adequately staffed, but to also inculcate an understanding within our society -- the larger public as well as other stakeholders -- not only on the limitations of resources used to maintain security, law and order, but also the fact that we can never entirely eliminate human error. No country can guarantee its citizens that it can prevent an attack. Indeed this is precisely why countries know they must cooperate to share intelligence against the threat of terrorism. This is also why the strategy must always be that while we should do whatever is practicable to prevent an attack, we must at the same time assume that it can happen. We must therefore prepare ourselves to deal with its consequences. This is why we have invested so much energy in contingency and consequence management including shoring up the resilience of our people through the Community Engagement Programme.

In this connection, we have benefited from strong community support for our Home Team agencies, without which the high level of safety and security we enjoy today would not have been possible or sustainable as our manpower to population ratios for the Home Team are low compared to similar jurisdictions abroad. On our part, we will continue to take care of the well-being of our officers, as only with each and every Home Team officer putting in his best will we be able to make Singapore a safe and secure best home for Singaporeans.