CAPO officers look at complaints investigation in Singapore
In a bid to identify areas for improvement to the Force's existing complaints investigation system, officers of Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO), led by Senior Superintendent Tony Siu, visited Singapore Police Force (SPF) from February 20 to 23 to study SPF's centralised complaints investigation system.
Prior to 1979, public complaints against SPF officers for misconduct were investigated by the unit an affected officer attached to. Later, such investigations were centralised and managed by an Internal Investigations Section. In 1997 the section was reorganised and renamed Internal Investigation Division. In August last year, the division was again reorganised to form an independent investigation entity called Internal Affairs Office (IAO).
After CAPO's recent full centralisation of complaints investigations, the visit provided a great opportunity for CAPO officers to gain experience about the centralised complaints investigation system in Singapore and the actions taken by IAO to address the challenges arising from centralisation.
Through presentations and experience-sharing sessions, CAPO and IAO officers had in-depth discussions and exchanges of ideas. In addition to the exchanges with IAO officers, the delegation also met SPF officers from the Manpower Department and the Service Development and Inspectorate Department on the measures taken by SPF to uphold police values and sustain public trust. Moreover, the delegation visited a local police division to study how divisional officers applied the "Consensus Resolution" in handling complaints.
Overall, the visit not only offered CAPO officers a valuable opportunity to benchmark the good practices adopted by SPF, but also strengthened the co-operation and understanding between the two Forces.
CAPO
officers visit a local police division to study how divisional officers
apply the "Consensus Resolution" in handling complaints