Police work closely with partners in community to boost preparedness

Places of worship among those engaged via activities like anti-terrorism drills: Faishal

- Zaihan Mohamed Yusof

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) works closely with community partners, including places of worship, to raise the level of community preparedness, Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim told The Straits Times.

Associate Professor Faishal was responding to a question by ST in the wake of a knife attack on a priest at a Bukit Timah church on Nov 9.

The SPF engages partners through various activities, including ground deployment exercises, said Prof Faishal at the end of one such exercise on Nov 18.

Exercise Heartbeat, a counter-terrorism and emergency preparedness exercise, was held at ITE College West in Choa Chu Kang.

There were more than 40 participants from the SPF and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), role players and student volunteers from ITE College West.

Several security-related exercises have been conducted in the community by the Home Team since 2015. Exercise Heartbeat has been held annually for more than a decade.

The exercise at the Institute of Technical Education began with a security officer finding an abandoned bag with wires sticking out of it near a lift at the carpark. The area was immediately cordoned off.

Students were told to keep away, but a lone man grabbed the suspicious bag and made a dash towards the students, "detonating" the bag's explosive contents.