Police may get curfew powers to tackle youth gangs
Ministry explores giving police more clout to take pre-emptive action
By Teh Joo Lin
TO TACKLE the problem of youth gangs, the police may be armed with additional powers such as getting at-risk youths to observe curfew hours and to attend intervention programmes.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is studying the feasibility of giving the police this kind of clout, so they 'can intervene upstream', that is, step in before errant youths form loose gang associations, said its minister K. Shanmugam in Parliament yesterday.
Giving an update on gang violence, he made it clear that the police have a 'zero-tolerance' policy towards gang activities and will hold on to this stance.
The police have picked up 144 suspected gang members since the end of last month. They include the eight youths since charged with murder in the Downtown East slashing case, and the six linked to the armed rioting in Bukit Panjang, who are being processed for criminal detention.
Mr Shanmugam, who is concurrently Minister for Law, said 45 per cent of the rioting cases this year involved young persons; about 32 per cent of them were linked to secret societies.
Noting the current of 'understandable public concern' over the recent incidents, he assured the House that the police took a serious view of such violence.
But he urged caution against drawing 'erroneous conclusions', based on the recent events, that gang activity had intensified.
The numbers show otherwise, he said.
The number of rioting cases, which can be used as a proxy indicator of the level of gang violence, in fact fell from 489 in 2005 to 283 cases last year. In the first nine months of this year, there were 214 rioting cases.
Overall crime rates have also fallen in the last five years.
He said: 'So when we assess the current situation, we need to assess with the right perspective. These two recent cases do not suggest that our crime situation is worsening, or that our policing efforts are not adequate.'
He was responding to questions from Members of Parliament Alvin Yeo (Hong Kah GRC), Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) and Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim, who asked about the prevalence of the gang problem and the measures taken to curb gang-related violence following the two recent incidents.
On Oct 30, a 19-year-old polytechnic student was hacked to death when a meeting between two youth gangs boiled over into a fight; on Nov 8, seven people were attacked by a group in Bukit Panjang.
Mr Shanmugam reiterated that gangs today are mainly street gangs that operate without specific aims and engage in fights over trivial matters, even accidental contact.
Young people who join gangs are usually unskilled youngsters, those who do badly in school or have left school.
He said: 'They turn to gangs to fulfil emotional and psychological needs not met in their families and schools.
'They seek a sense of belonging, security and power.'
Stiff enforcement must be combined with preventive and rehabilitative efforts for these youths, he said.
Programmes such as prison visits and school talks have paid off, but more will be done. For example, the Central Youth Guidance Office, set up in July to coordinate inter-agency efforts, is exploring ways to better reach out to youth-at-risk. Some programmes will start soon.
'The steps we have taken over the years have worked very well. But we will continue to take further steps,' he said.
Asked by Madam Halimah and Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) whether his ministry would consider changing its deployment concept or extending the operating hours of neighbourhood police posts, he questioned their underlying assumption - that crime rates were worsening.
He said the figures have declined, which showed that the available resources were being used in the best way: 'We have to start with the facts because, when we talk about deploying police resources, it must be based on careful analysis of the facts, and not knee-jerk reactions.'
NCMP Ms Lim asked whether the rioting figures gave the full picture, since there may have been cases that went unreported or were categorised differently.
To that, Mr Shanmugam said if cases were unreported, it meant there were no victims and were clearly not serious enough to warrant the police's attention.
Other indicators of gang activity, such as rioting with dangerous weapons, did not indicate a worsening situation.
He said: 'So whichever way you look at it, I think the conclusion is the situation has remained stable and, on the whole, has been coming down.'
Ms Lim, noting that the Secret Societies Branch was absorbed into a larger unit about two years ago before becoming a separate branch again this year, asked whether this resulted in a loss of focus and intelligence during the interim.
Mr Shanmugam said no, and gave the assurance that there was 'complete focus' on the issue.
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Ministry explores giving police more clout to take pre-emptive action
By Teh Joo Lin
TO TACKLE the problem of youth gangs, the police may be armed with additional powers such as getting at-risk youths to observe curfew hours and to attend intervention programmes.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is studying the feasibility of giving the police this kind of clout, so they 'can intervene upstream', that is, step in before errant youths form loose gang associations, said its minister K. Shanmugam in Parliament yesterday.
Giving an update on gang violence, he made it clear that the police have a 'zero-tolerance' policy towards gang activities and will hold on to this stance.
The police have picked up 144 suspected gang members since the end of last month. They include the eight youths since charged with murder in the Downtown East slashing case, and the six linked to the armed rioting in Bukit Panjang, who are being processed for criminal detention.
Mr Shanmugam, who is concurrently Minister for Law, said 45 per cent of the rioting cases this year involved young persons; about 32 per cent of them were linked to secret societies.
Noting the current of 'understandable public concern' over the recent incidents, he assured the House that the police took a serious view of such violence.
But he urged caution against drawing 'erroneous conclusions', based on the recent events, that gang activity had intensified.
The numbers show otherwise, he said.
The number of rioting cases, which can be used as a proxy indicator of the level of gang violence, in fact fell from 489 in 2005 to 283 cases last year. In the first nine months of this year, there were 214 rioting cases.
Overall crime rates have also fallen in the last five years.
He said: 'So when we assess the current situation, we need to assess with the right perspective. These two recent cases do not suggest that our crime situation is worsening, or that our policing efforts are not adequate.'
He was responding to questions from Members of Parliament Alvin Yeo (Hong Kah GRC), Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) and Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim, who asked about the prevalence of the gang problem and the measures taken to curb gang-related violence following the two recent incidents.
On Oct 30, a 19-year-old polytechnic student was hacked to death when a meeting between two youth gangs boiled over into a fight; on Nov 8, seven people were attacked by a group in Bukit Panjang.
Mr Shanmugam reiterated that gangs today are mainly street gangs that operate without specific aims and engage in fights over trivial matters, even accidental contact.
Young people who join gangs are usually unskilled youngsters, those who do badly in school or have left school.
He said: 'They turn to gangs to fulfil emotional and psychological needs not met in their families and schools.
'They seek a sense of belonging, security and power.'
Stiff enforcement must be combined with preventive and rehabilitative efforts for these youths, he said.
Programmes such as prison visits and school talks have paid off, but more will be done. For example, the Central Youth Guidance Office, set up in July to coordinate inter-agency efforts, is exploring ways to better reach out to youth-at-risk. Some programmes will start soon.
'The steps we have taken over the years have worked very well. But we will continue to take further steps,' he said.
Asked by Madam Halimah and Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) whether his ministry would consider changing its deployment concept or extending the operating hours of neighbourhood police posts, he questioned their underlying assumption - that crime rates were worsening.
He said the figures have declined, which showed that the available resources were being used in the best way: 'We have to start with the facts because, when we talk about deploying police resources, it must be based on careful analysis of the facts, and not knee-jerk reactions.'
NCMP Ms Lim asked whether the rioting figures gave the full picture, since there may have been cases that went unreported or were categorised differently.
To that, Mr Shanmugam said if cases were unreported, it meant there were no victims and were clearly not serious enough to warrant the police's attention.
Other indicators of gang activity, such as rioting with dangerous weapons, did not indicate a worsening situation.
He said: 'So whichever way you look at it, I think the conclusion is the situation has remained stable and, on the whole, has been coming down.'
Ms Lim, noting that the Secret Societies Branch was absorbed into a larger unit about two years ago before becoming a separate branch again this year, asked whether this resulted in a loss of focus and intelligence during the interim.
Mr Shanmugam said no, and gave the assurance that there was 'complete focus' on the issue.
[email protected]
