Singapore, which has been recruiting auxiliary police officers from Taiwan for years, is looking to expand its recruitment map, and India is one of the countries under consideration.
Auxiliary police officers (APOs) form support teams for the primary Singapore Police Force (SPF) in maintaining law and order. The APOs are not full-time police personnel, but they have jurisdictions and responsibilities. They work closely with both the SPF and the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
APOs in Singapore have mostly been recruited from Taiwan, but now the MHA is also considering recruitments from India, China, the Philippines, and Myanmar.
According to a CNA report: “Singapore’s auxiliary police forces are still hiring officers from Taiwan, but numbers have dropped significantly since the practice began in 2017, said Home and Law Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday (Jan 10).” This is the reason for looking at other countries.
Shanmugam reveals reason for recruitment expansion
CNA said that Shanmugam “revealed this in a written parliamentary response to MP Sylvia Lim (WP-Aljunied), who had asked if the hiring of APOs from Taiwan is still going on and what work challenges have surfaced among such officers”.
The report said: “As of November last year, Singaporeans made up about 68 per cent of the total population of APOs, with the remaining 32 per cent being Malaysian and Taiwanese.”
Various security threats and the need to protect vital infrastructure have led to the practice of hiring APOs, in order to augment local resources in Singapore.
Shanmugam reportedly said in his parliamentary response: “We need to allow the auxiliary police forces to recruit foreign APOs to meet the increasing demand for security services.
“They face challenges in sustaining an adequate pool of APOs, given the shrinking local workforce, requirements such as physical fitness, and the job options Singaporeans have.”
He noted that the number of Taiwanese APOs in Singapore had dropped by about 60 per cent now from what it was in 2017. The attrition factors are: demanding nature of public-facing security work; improved job opportunities in Taiwan; and homesickness.
Minister cites extremely low risk of weapon misuse by APOs
While APOs can be both armed and unarmed, the minister’s response addressed the risks, referring to the screening, training, and supervision that went into ensuring public safety.
“So far, misuse of firearms by APOs is extremely rare and is not more prevalent among non-Singaporeans,” said Shanmugam. “We are also careful and more restrictive where we deploy non-Singaporean APOs. It is a challenging environment, because of our shrinking workforce.”