Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Working with Private Security Agencies to Train Officers to Deal with Abuse

Question:

Mr Christopher de Souza: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs how is the Ministry working with private security agencies to ensure that security officers receive training to deal with those who seek to abuse them.

Answer:

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

1.   Preventing and deterring abuse and harassment of security officers requires the whole of society. The nature of their work, which could involve restricting access to premises, crowd control, and conflict mediation, invariably exposes them to greater risk of confrontation with people.

2.   The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Police recognise the importance of training for security officers, so that they can better protect themselves. Therefore, we have been working with tripartite partners to enhance their competency in public engagement and conflict management, such as customer orientation, problem solving, and de-escalation skills. We will make these subjects more pertinent in the training that all security officers undergo before deployment, and assess how they can also be incorporated into refreshers for in-service officers.

3.   MHA and our tripartite partners will continue to ensure our security officers’ welfare, and intervene where necessary.