Surprise!!! I came home early today. And ate dinner with my lovely parents.
After dinner, I read the newspaper... Yeah I read the papers!! I came across this article that I would like to share...
Here's the article, I copied and paste it from
todayonline.
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All in a day’s work
Besides catching criminals, policemen have to learn how to capture snakes
Teo Xuanwei
xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sgHE’S trained to chase after the bad guys but Staff Sergeant Juraimi Mohd Amin joked that he and
his colleagues have become experts at catching snakes and coaxing stranded cats down from trees.
.Just minutes earlier, shortly after 8pm on Thursday, SS Juraimi and his partner, Station Inspector Bernard Koh, had responded to yet another emergency call — about a fallen tree branch on Bukit Purmei Road.
.When they arrived at the scene, the two officers moved the branch inward to ensure that it would not cause obstruction on the road — and then continued with their vehicular patrol.
.While maintaining law and order remains their fundamental mission, Singapore’s police officers like SI Koh and SS Juraimi have been forced to become Jacks of All Trades by default — a fact that this reporter can vouch for after tagging along with a police patrol in two 12-hour shifts on Wednesday and Thursday.
.It was the first time that the media had been allowed to be embedded in a Neighbourhood Police Centre Officer’s (NPCO) tour of duty for a glimpse of a day in the life of the men and women in blue.
.My short stints with the two officers from the Central Police Division revealed that police work these days is not all about high-speed car chases or nabbing hardcore criminals.
.Sure, there were “thrilling” incidents like a stabbing, a foreign domestic helper who fell from some six storeys and arrests of suspected drug abusers near the busy Raffles City shopping mall.
.But there were also mundane complaints of noise pollution (“Someone is making a lot of noise at the playground”); a case of someone being stuck in a lift and a couple of non-cases, where the subjects were not found or the complainants’ descriptions were exaggerated.
.As we trawled the back alleys within the Ann Siang Hill area and the Boat Quay nightspot belt, SI Koh, 36, told Weekend Xtra: “In the past, a police officer was seen as someone of authority, whom people are maybe afraid of. But things are much different now.”
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Now, people are calling the police to deal with matters which fall outside of their core policing duties — and the police officer ends up having to wear many other hats, such as that of a counsellor and mediator.
.Of course, there are moments when wearing one of these hats makes the policeman’s job even more meaningful.
.SI Koh described his most memorable case in his 18 years with the police force as the one when he had to don a counsellor’s hat.
.The case involved a woman who called for police assistance after her drunk husband started “causing trouble at home”.
.SI Koh recalled: “He was very uncooperative when we first arrived, taunting us to bring him back to the station. The kids were all hiding in the room and the wife was quite upset. But we managed to calm him down.
.“Defusing this domestic dispute was more satisfying than any arrests I had made because I really felt that I had helped that family,” he added.
.Marital disputes aside,
police officers have also been asked to play peacemaker between warring neighbours.
.“We cannot take sides or believe all the allegations both parties make,” said SS Juraimi, 30. “There’s nothing much the police can do if no crime has been committed, but we have to do everything to keep the peace.”
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STRAIN ON RESOURCES
.Earlier this month, Second Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam told Parliament that
three out of every five “999” calls last year were regarding matters where there was no imminent threat to life or property. Such non-urgent matters are placing a considerable strain on police resources, he added.
.Indeed, nearly half of all the calls SI Koh and SS Juraimi handled on Wednesday and Thursday were non-urgent cases — common on a typical day.
.Although the two men have no complaints about having to help members of the public in every imaginable situation, they do wish that they have more time to fulfil their core duty: Preventing and deterring crime.
.Chatting with Weekend Xtra at 5am on Friday — when the streets were quiet,SS Juraimi said: “When we are heavily engaged — attending to non-urgent cases — we have less time to do our routine, core policing. This creates an opportunity for real, major crimes, such as housebreaking, to happen elsewhere at the same time.”
.However, they conceded that a few of these seemingly mundane complaints sometimes turned out to be genuine concerns.
.For instance, when the officers attended to a “noise pollution” message in the wee hours on Friday, they ended up averting a potential clash between a group of 13 disgruntled foreign workers who had confronted their agent.
.Twelve-hour shifts are “not enough for us to do all our jobs”, SI Koh added.
.This is because much of a policeman’s job is to foil would-be criminals’ plans to commit crimes, he said.
.To do that, officers try to squeeze in as much time as possible, conducting pro-active patrols to project a strong police presence. Occasionally, they also chance upon suspects.
.On Wednesday, for example, the duo managed to spot and nab a suspected illegal immigrant during one of their routine foot patrols at the People’s Park Complex Food Centre.
.In addition, the police also initiate community projects to wipe out niggling neighbourhood problems, SS Juraimi pointed out.
.For example, officers will rope in Residents’ Committee members to visit areas that are prone to break-ins to offer advice on preventive measures. Or, they visit schools to warn students against joining gangs.
.Even when all that is done, the policemen still need to beef up their knowledge and skills in other areas that are essential to their jobs today.
.Among them: Attending classes conducted by zookeepers on how to capture snakes of the reptilian, not human kind. WEEKENDVTRA
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Nowadays, our policeman is a man of all trades. To put in bluntly, all shit jobs also bao ga liao... So poor thing. Worse still, some people like to call "999" for the most absurd reasons that normal human being won't understand. "999" is for emergency. Not for some ringing alarms that rang at 6am and disturbing your sleep . Come on, alarm going off at 6am is perfectly normal! Let's channel our policemen to more important and life threatening calls for help. You cannot imagine how busy our policemen are. One 12-hour shift only eat one meal, and go toilet 2, 3 times. Somemore is tahan until cannot tahan run to toilet kind. After the hectic 12-hour shift, reached home wash up and zonked out for the next 13 hour or so. Too tired. Does the public see that? Everyday only know how to complain complain. They slog like dogs everyday you know. Wait. Even worse than dogs. My elmo doesn't lead such a tough life.
And they slog so hard because:
Some retard monkeys climb up the roof and refuse to come down. (I witness it at ECP and police were called).
Some irritating fuckers buay song their neighbours' properties being placed slightly near to their doorstep.
Some stray cats flighting in the middle of the night.
Super bo liao right!!!
Like what someone tell me. Police - An extrodinary career.
Very true. Extra job ordinary pay.
Please stop making our policemen so busy that they don't have time to eat!!! They are also human beings trying to earn a living to feed their families too!
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