Leadership Change in the Singapore Police Force

1. Mr Hoong Wee Teck (云维德), 62, Commissioner of Police, will retire on 6 January 2026. He was appointed the Commissioner of Police on 6 January 2015, and has served the Singapore Police Force (SPF) with distinction for 38 years. He has held many key appointments, including Deputy Commissioner (Investigations and Intelligence), Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, and Director of the Police Intelligence Department.

2. During his tenure as Commissioner, Mr Hoong significantly strengthened the capabilities of the SPF. New technological capabilities have been built for crime fighting and prevention, including unmanned aerial vehicles for patrols and incident response, and a police camera network with video analytics in public places, which has significantly improved the success rate of, and speed with which the SPF has been able to solve crimes such as robberies.

3. Mr Hoong also established the Anti-Scam Command and Emergency Response Teams in the SPF, to more effectively tackle scams and the terrorism threat respectively. In the first half of this year, scam cases and scam losses have decreased by 26% and 12.6% from the same period in 2024.

4. Under Mr Hoong’s leadership, Singapore has remained one of the safest cities in the world, with consistently low crime rates, and high public trust in the SPF.

5. Mr How Kwang Hwee (侯光辉), 46, currently Deputy Commissioner of Police (Policy), will be appointed the Commissioner of Police on 6 January 2026. He has held several key appointments in the SPF and the Ministry of Home Affairs, including Deputy Commissioner (Investigation and Intelligence), Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, Director of the Operations Department, and Senior Director of the Policy Development Division in the Ministry Headquarters.

6. As Deputy Commissioner (Policy), Mr How has been helping Mr Hoong drive technological transformation in the SPF, in particular the adoption of artificial intelligence to strengthen capabilities in investigation, and crime prevention and detection. He also led the review of the SPF’s service delivery strategy and steered the transformation of its public-facing services, which has resulted in significant enhancements in the experience of members of the public when interacting with the SPF.

7. In his previous appointments as Deputy Commissioner (Investigation and Intelligence) and Director Operations Department, Mr How led the planning and execution of several major operations, including the security operations of the Trump-Kim Summit in 2018 and the anti-money laundering case which resulted in the arrest of 10 foreign nationals and seizure of assets valued at about S$3 billion in 2023. He also led SPF in its efforts to tackle scams, and built strong partnerships with fellow Government agencies and non-Government entities that has enabled today‘s whole-of-society response to the problem.

8. We thank Mr Hoong for his decades of loyal service and inspiring leadership of the SPF.