Up to the the late 60's, senior SPF officers wore khaki-long pants and jackets. The senior officers also had belts worn along their chest. The junior officers wore khaki shorts and flannel shirts.
In 1969, the entire force changed to a new uniform comprising of blue long pants, long-sleeved shirt complete with a a blue/white lanyard and peak caps. This saw the old junior officers uniform (khaki shorts and flannels shirt) being handed over the the school cadet corps (NPCC) and in later years to the inmates of Woodbrige Hospital.
The old Guard & Escort wing, then the commercial wing of the SPF, (GE now known as Cisco) also followed suit with the new uniform. The only way to differentiate these two were that the latter (GE) had four-figured numbers that started from 5001 and above. besides other unique insignia.
In those days there were also APOs or Auxiliarry police officers, who were elderly ex-cops (retirees) deployed at goldsmith shops, etc.. These officers still wore that same old uniform (khaki short and flannel shirt). They would draw their Webley & Scott revolvers from the nearest police armoury and proceed to the designated sites for deployment.
Secret societies and criminal elements were still a threat but the local police maintained absolute law and order with a no nonsense approach. Regular police officers also assisted their GE counterparts deployed at banks during their lunch-breaks. The same was for the APOs. Such was the level of co-operation that existed among the men in blue.
The slime started to rot the SPF machinery, when it slowly was "invaded" by many direct entry senior officers, who joined it as direct ASPs and in later years brought about many changes. These "top-class scholars" sat in the comfortable officers and change the normal hours of patrols into "man-hours, man-minutes, man-seconds and much other nitty-gritty which was of no use for patrols was actually based on the pattern of crime and other peculiarities that existed and differed from place tp place. They brought in "compulsory passing-points". It was so stupid that a patrol-car must go to a certain public phone and pick it just to tell the SPF operator that it was there. The criminals came to know about these and later used it for their own gains on many occassions. There were so many other silly ideas from their "intelligent brains". These stupidity continued and the rot started to show but no one at the bottom dared to point it out for such "intelligent feedback from a low-level cop" was seen as an affront to the scholar's intelligence. It affected the unfair grading system that offered "performance bonus and promotions". The officers who remained quiet and obedient rose to the higher ranks. The trouble-makers rotted till retirement.
Back to our story, the GE was disbanded and Cisco formed. These completely tore away the SPF from the GE. The APOs were disbanded. Cisco was more of a commercial enterprise to make $$$$$. The only thing that did not change was the uniform for it remained the same as the SPF regular officers. Although there was much unhappiness among the regular SPF officers, no one accepted their views and it carried on till today.
These was also followed by the disbandment of the PSAP (Port of Singapore Authority Police), Naval Base or Admiralty Police Force and the then Airport Police. Airport police officers with unique numbers starting from 4801 onwards were merged with the SPF
Cisco operated by itself. Later, SATs (Singapore Airport Terminal Services) police was born followed by Aetos. Cisco was later renamed Certis Cisco.
Many of Cisco, Aetos and SATs policemen are Malaysians. These foreigners are armed just like our regulars and known as as auxilliary policemen, vested with the same powers and privileges like the regular coppers.. Their uniform, especially the isignia on their peak caps remained same or similar to that of the SPF.
These similarity exists till today and left many citizens and foreigners here baffled. Who are the regulars and who the others????. The powers weilded by the others is the same. Many Malaysians abuse their position and powers by bullying the locals. Over the years the locals have gone to disrespect the officers from Cisco, Aetos, etc...
Officers from Cisco, Aetos and others have also committed many crimes while in uniform. .The similarity in uniform may have thus plunged the ratings of the regular force lower.
Even the Customs and Immigration officers wore the same uniform with similar insignias. Many people have no respect for our customs and immigration officers and hence these may have affected their perception of the local regular force (SPF).
It is about time, the SPF changed their uniform once again or order the commercial operators of Cisco, Aetos (Temasek Holdings) and SATs (CAG or Changi Airport Group) to change their uniform.
The regulars should be a body by itself. These "Home Team" thing should be rubbished away into the dust-bin and consigned to history. It has done more bad then any good and those repsonsible for the fruition of such an idea in the first place should be openly condemned.
SPF officers should be allowed to redeem themselves. The scholars and others in it have done it much damage then good. It was better off under officers with common Cambridge certificates, who spoke and wrote better then these people with degrees in "nuts and bolts" and "soft-ware, hardware and God knows what other wear".
In 1969, the entire force changed to a new uniform comprising of blue long pants, long-sleeved shirt complete with a a blue/white lanyard and peak caps. This saw the old junior officers uniform (khaki shorts and flannels shirt) being handed over the the school cadet corps (NPCC) and in later years to the inmates of Woodbrige Hospital.
The old Guard & Escort wing, then the commercial wing of the SPF, (GE now known as Cisco) also followed suit with the new uniform. The only way to differentiate these two were that the latter (GE) had four-figured numbers that started from 5001 and above. besides other unique insignia.
In those days there were also APOs or Auxiliarry police officers, who were elderly ex-cops (retirees) deployed at goldsmith shops, etc.. These officers still wore that same old uniform (khaki short and flannel shirt). They would draw their Webley & Scott revolvers from the nearest police armoury and proceed to the designated sites for deployment.
Secret societies and criminal elements were still a threat but the local police maintained absolute law and order with a no nonsense approach. Regular police officers also assisted their GE counterparts deployed at banks during their lunch-breaks. The same was for the APOs. Such was the level of co-operation that existed among the men in blue.
The slime started to rot the SPF machinery, when it slowly was "invaded" by many direct entry senior officers, who joined it as direct ASPs and in later years brought about many changes. These "top-class scholars" sat in the comfortable officers and change the normal hours of patrols into "man-hours, man-minutes, man-seconds and much other nitty-gritty which was of no use for patrols was actually based on the pattern of crime and other peculiarities that existed and differed from place tp place. They brought in "compulsory passing-points". It was so stupid that a patrol-car must go to a certain public phone and pick it just to tell the SPF operator that it was there. The criminals came to know about these and later used it for their own gains on many occassions. There were so many other silly ideas from their "intelligent brains". These stupidity continued and the rot started to show but no one at the bottom dared to point it out for such "intelligent feedback from a low-level cop" was seen as an affront to the scholar's intelligence. It affected the unfair grading system that offered "performance bonus and promotions". The officers who remained quiet and obedient rose to the higher ranks. The trouble-makers rotted till retirement.
Back to our story, the GE was disbanded and Cisco formed. These completely tore away the SPF from the GE. The APOs were disbanded. Cisco was more of a commercial enterprise to make $$$$$. The only thing that did not change was the uniform for it remained the same as the SPF regular officers. Although there was much unhappiness among the regular SPF officers, no one accepted their views and it carried on till today.
These was also followed by the disbandment of the PSAP (Port of Singapore Authority Police), Naval Base or Admiralty Police Force and the then Airport Police. Airport police officers with unique numbers starting from 4801 onwards were merged with the SPF
Cisco operated by itself. Later, SATs (Singapore Airport Terminal Services) police was born followed by Aetos. Cisco was later renamed Certis Cisco.
Many of Cisco, Aetos and SATs policemen are Malaysians. These foreigners are armed just like our regulars and known as as auxilliary policemen, vested with the same powers and privileges like the regular coppers.. Their uniform, especially the isignia on their peak caps remained same or similar to that of the SPF.
These similarity exists till today and left many citizens and foreigners here baffled. Who are the regulars and who the others????. The powers weilded by the others is the same. Many Malaysians abuse their position and powers by bullying the locals. Over the years the locals have gone to disrespect the officers from Cisco, Aetos, etc...
Officers from Cisco, Aetos and others have also committed many crimes while in uniform. .The similarity in uniform may have thus plunged the ratings of the regular force lower.
Even the Customs and Immigration officers wore the same uniform with similar insignias. Many people have no respect for our customs and immigration officers and hence these may have affected their perception of the local regular force (SPF).
It is about time, the SPF changed their uniform once again or order the commercial operators of Cisco, Aetos (Temasek Holdings) and SATs (CAG or Changi Airport Group) to change their uniform.
The regulars should be a body by itself. These "Home Team" thing should be rubbished away into the dust-bin and consigned to history. It has done more bad then any good and those repsonsible for the fruition of such an idea in the first place should be openly condemned.
SPF officers should be allowed to redeem themselves. The scholars and others in it have done it much damage then good. It was better off under officers with common Cambridge certificates, who spoke and wrote better then these people with degrees in "nuts and bolts" and "soft-ware, hardware and God knows what other wear".
In the 70s-80s time there were at least 1 bolice with 2 NS VC regularly patrolling and occasionally spot check group of youngsters to maintain peace and security of the areas 
