With an eye on safety and security, PolCam has played a vital policing role in our neighbourhoods.
By: K Shreeyaa
The Police Operations Command Centre (POCC) stands as one of the nerve centres of the Singapore Police Force (SPF), coordinating seamless frontline operations 24/7. And since the island-wide rollout of the Police Camera (PolCam) network in 2012, the POCC has sharpened its expertise in real-time incident management and monitoring. Here’s how PolCam has helped with crime deterrence, prevention and detection!
A Technological Game-changer
There are currently more than 90,000 cameras installed across public housing blocks, multi-storey carparks, public areas in neighbourhoods and town centres, as well as select entertainment and commercial districts.
Since its deployment, PolCam has assisted the SPF in solving more than 7,500 crime cases. Through PolCam footage and with the aid of sense-making tools, officers can identify, locate and apprehend suspects within hours of a crime being reported. The SPF also continuously refines the technology used in PolCam to find leads from footage.
Investigations Made Easier
Time and again, PolCam has helped our officers to crack cases on the ground. On 22 October 2022, at about 8.40am, the Police were alerted to a case of snatch theft; a 76-year-old woman had her bag taken by a male suspect at a HDB block at Clementi Avenue 2.
The elderly victim was in shock and couldn’t provide a clear description of the suspect or the exact location where the incident happened.
Given the limited information that the victim could recall, it was a challenge to find the suspect. Station Inspector (SI) Tay Wee Kiong, Officer-in-charge of the POCC’s Sense-making Group, began checking the vicinity to narrow down the exact location where the theft had occurred.
“Using PolCam footage and information gathered by the Ground Response Force (GRF) officers onsite, my team and I managed to pinpoint the incident location,” SI Tay recalled. “As the offence was captured within PolCam’s view, we established clues that would help identify the suspect and coordinated with the GRF officers to search for him.”
“PolCam provided us with a crucial lead by showing us what the suspect was wearing,” recounted SI Fang Wei Chen, Senior Investigation Officer with the Specialised Crime Team of Clementi Police Division.
The officers’ quick actions resulted in the suspect being traced and arrested just two hours after the “999” call was received.
However, the suspect denied being involved in the incident. SI Fang and his team reviewed other PolCam footage and found that the suspect had thrown the stolen bag into a rubbish bin. This led to the successful recovery of the bag to prove his crime.
The offender was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and two strokes of the cane for snatch theft.
Deterring Crime and Safeguarding the Vulnerable
PolCam's critical role in solving this snatch theft case is just one example of how the system has aided law enforcement. PolCam has also effectively deterred physical crimes such as unlicenced moneylending-related harassment involving damage to property (falling by 83.6% from 2015 to 2023), housebreaking in housing estates (falling by 50% from 2015 to 2023) motor vehicle thefts in housing estate multi-storey carparks (falling by 80.9% from 2015 to 2023) and theft from motor vehicles in housing estate multi-storey carparks (falling by 67.7% from 2015 to 2023).
PolCam has also proven instrumental in various emergency scenarios. On 18 March 2023, the Police were alerted to a case of a missing person with special needs. Through PolCam footage in the vicinity of the missing person’s housing estate, officers were able to identify the clothes he was wearing and his build.
Officers trawled through PolCam footage to trace his movements. With the assistance of PolCam’s sense-making capabilities, officers were alerted to a possible sighting of the missing person. He was located and safely reunited with his family within four hours of the report being lodged.
“With PolCam around to safeguard our neighbourhoods,” concluded SI Tay, “together with all other work we do as officers, the public’s trust and confidence in the Police has increased.”
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