Southeast Asias Safest Metropolis- Wants To Be Even Safer

30 Mar 2013

It is 10 pm on Thursday and darkness stretches over New Bridge Road, a thoroughfare in Singapore’s Chinatown. In contrary to other cities in Southeast Asia, many areas of Singapore remain quiet, nightlife concentrating only in a few spots across the metropolis. They are few bystanders along the road. But there is nothing to fear. Singapore provides an incredible sense of safety.

Of course, it all hangs to Singapore’s government. The sometimes-called “Nanny State” can certainly echo more Mrs. Danvers’ behaviour in Rebecca than Mary Poppins by watching at its residents! The Commissioner results are nevertheless impressive and just confirm that fact: Singapore is SAFE.

Tripadvisor survey on cities in 2012 puts Singapore at the second place in Asia just behind Tokyo. Large TV networks such as CNN and BBC are all but words of praise when talking about Singapore’s safety.

This seems however not enough for the Government. At a press conference organized a few weeks ago about criminality in the City State, Singapore Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee revealed that the crime rate reached a 29-year low in 2012. According to data based on Singapore’s population, the crime rate last year fell to 581 crimes per 100,000 people, compared to 608 per 100,000 people in 2011. Last year, a total of 30,868 cases were recorded. This represented 640 cases less than in 2011.

But Singapore Commissioner of Police still remains unsatisfied and feels it can do better. “It doesn’t matter if the population hits 6.9 million [editor note: compared to 5.3 million in 2012]. We can to lower because a lot of the crime here is preventable”, said Ng Joo Hee. A policy which obviously is all benefits for tourists coming into Singapore.

A significant move was the launch of the Community Policing System (COPS). Launched in COPS, the prevention system has been set up to bring back the police force into contact with the population. It translates into an interactive presence of policemen in neighbourhoods with patrol cars or policemen patrolling on bikes helping also people and providing information. The scheme is according to Mr. Ng Joo Hee a way to make the police officer a familiar face in neighbourhoods and not only when something wrong happens.

Prevention and deterrence to help fighting possible crimes are now guidelines for Singapore Police Force. The Commissioner believes that he could make Singapore “the safest place in the world” even if he admits that a zero crime rate is all but impossible. “As long as there is more than one human being, there will be crime”, indicated Mr. Ng Joo Hee to Singapore’s newspaper the Straits Times.

Source: http://www.traveldailynews.asia/news/article/51991/singapore-southeast-asia-rsquo-s-safest-metropolis