The Singapore Police Force (SPF) was awarded the Public/Private Partnership Award (Public Sector) in the 2021 WITSA Global ICT Excellence Awards for “Project POET” (Production Orders: Electronic Transmission).
Project POET is a collaboration co-led by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the SPF and OCBC Bank to automate the retrieval process of critical data for purposes of investigation. The prompt conveyance of banking information electronically enhances crime detection, and enables SPF to solve financial crime cases more efficiently.
Since its launch in 2019, Project POET has been expanded. DBS Bank and United Overseas Bank have come on board to partner SPF on this initiative. During the virtual award ceremony streamed online on 13 November 2021, Mr. David Chew, Director of CAD said: “We would like to thank our industry partners for making this project a success and the WITSA and SGTech for the recognition. We will continue to work closely with our partners and community to leverage technology and enhance our capabilities to prevent, deter and detect crime.”
The solution is also being progressively implemented at various law enforcement agencies in Singapore, which have unanimously given positive feedback:
“POET is a fine example of the public-private partnership in our fight against financial crimes. As a digital interface between the local law enforcement agencies and the banks, POET has greatly facilitated investigation processes by enabling expeditious access and retrieval of information in digital form. IRAS is very grateful for the partnership with law enforcement agencies and banks in leveraging digitalisation for greater effectiveness.”
– Mrs Chia-Tern Huey Min, Deputy Commissioner, International, Investigation & Indirect Taxes, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
“POET offers an efficient and convenient avenue to obtain information generally within a few working days as compared to several weeks previously. In addition, users no longer need to send the printed hardcopies of requests via mail to the banks and vice-versa, which is more environmentally friendly.”
– Mr. Yee Kwan Yew, Head Intelligence, Singapore Customs
Project POET is one of the many ways the SPF is working with its stakeholders to leverage technology. We will continue to enhance and augment our crime fighting capabilities by adopting new technologies to stay ahead of the curve and keep Singapore safe and secure.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
13 November 2021 @ 6:20 PM