Singapore to strengthen coastal defense

The Singapore Police Force is strengthening its coastal defense system, in a masterplan unveiled Thursday at a workplan seminar.

The coastal police will deploy sea barges over the next three years to serve as command and surveillance posts in the southern waters off Singapore, local TV broadcaster Channel NewsAsia broadcast reported.

These will be supported by faster and more agile patrol boats. At the same time, more and better fences will be mounted along the northern coastline to deter illegal immigrants.

At the seminar, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng also laid out ways to strengthen the capabilities of the police force.

One of which is to make better use of resources. Given the changing population demographics, the police are reviewing its presence on the ground. This might possibly involve reorganization of neighborhood police centers and neighborhood police posts.

A new 1 million Singapore dollars (0.73 million U.S. dollars) fingerprinting technology that could help determine for the first time the gender and race of a suspect through biochemical analysis is also being tested.

The new technology will also be able to sniff out if the suspect handled substances like explosives or drugs.

Source:Xinhua