The responsibility for keeping Singapore safe in terms of education and outreach cannot be outsourced to auxiliary police officers, Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs) Desmond Lee said yesterday at the revamped Emergency Preparedness (EP) Day held at Jurong Spring.

“We’re involving community volunteers, full-time national servicemen, teachers, educators and Singaporeans from all walks of life to drive the (counter-terror) message home because it’s important to us,” he said.

“(The EP day) is not just a programme but a national movement, which everyone needs to participate in because the stakes are very high.”

The revamped EP Day, a centrepiece of the SG Secure national movement, involves staged terror attacks and workshops that aim to “sensitise, train and equip” residents with skills and information to respond to a terrorist attack.

Mr Lee’s remarks to reporters were in relation to a letter in TODAY, which suggested that police work could be optimised by having auxiliary police officers conduct public education on dealing with terror attacks.

This came after it was announced that Home Team officers will be deployed, under a new citizen engagement vocation within the neighbourhoods, to teach residents how to safely evacuate a location under attack and encourage them to participate in the EP Day.

Yesterday, Jurong grassroots members launched a pocket community emergency guide, which features various emergency contacts and basic tips such as using a fire extinguisher and administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This guide will be rolled out to all other constituencies in Singapore.

“(It) is a good example of how each of us, as residents, can play a part to reach out to fellow residents by sharing information on how we can keep ourselves, our families and friends, safe and secure,” said Mr Lee.

The revamped EP Day will also be held across all constituencies in the next two years. During yesterday’s drill at Jurong Spring, two suspicious-looking men left a bag unattended at an automated teller machine below a block of flats. Residents in the vicinity reported the matter to the police, who helped evacuate them from the block.

Meanwhile, police officers covered the suspicious article with a bomb suppression blanket. A special task force from the Singapore Armed Forces then removed it using an improvised explosive device.

Trained community volunteer Chua Boy, 66, who played a resident who had a cardiac arrest during the evacuation, said it was especially important for elderly residents to know how to react in case of an attack.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Ng Siqi Kelly

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