Oral Reply to Parliamentary Questions on the SPF Resources Deployed to Jalan Tukang Westlite Dormitory Incident, by Mr Desmond Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment

Questions:

Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) which Singapore Police Force (SPF) units were activated in the Jalan Tukang Westlite Dormitory incident; (b) what are their roles; and (c) whether any enforcement actions were taken at site by these respective units.

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) over the last five years, how often and under what conditions have the riot police been deployed to respond to an active situation in Singapore; and (b) whether the situation at the Jalan Tukang Westlite Dormitory on 13 October 2021 warranted their deployment.

Answer:

1.   On 13 October 2021, the Police responded to a call for assistance at the Jalan Tukang Westlite Dormitory. The information received was that a group of workers were behaving aggressively, with potential for violence.

2.   Patrol officers from Jurong Police Division were dispatched to the dormitory. Officers from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) were already engaging the workers. The officers from Jurong Police Division, together with the dormitory staff and officers from MOM, managed to resolve the situation. While the Jurong Police Officers were thus engaged, they also assessed that it was necessary to have other Police units on standby, in the event the situation became violent. And additional units were placed on standby. However, these additional units were not needed to be deployed. No arrests were made by the Police during the incident.

3.   The Police do not track the number of times that its contingency forces have been activated to respond to public order incidents. Such activations may take place in a variety of situations, including management of large crowds that [may] turn disorderly, protests or riots. As a reply to Ms He Ting Ru’s question on previous deployments to active situations in the last five years, officers from the Special Operations Command (SOC) were activated in response to public order incidents on two occasions at the Singapore Boys’ Home in September 2016 and September 2018.