Police Coast Guard


The Police Coast Guard is a division of the Singapore Police Force that combines the functions of marine police and coast guard in Singapore. Its duties include the law enforcement and search and rescue operations in collaboration with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. It is headquartered at Brani Regional Base on Pulau Brani.

History

Given Singapore's standing as a trading port since its founding in 1819, problems of piracy had accompanied its early maritime history until the 1840s when Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim and his son, Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor, openly supported the British efforts to fight piracy. In 1866, the police's maritime operations were formally established with the building of a floating police station. Dedicated police patrol boats began patrolling the waters around the colony.
In 1916, the Marine Branch was set up, before being established as a separate unit in 1924 and renamed as the Marine Police. The new unit built its first headquarters near Cavenagh Bridge along the Singapore River, and had a fleet of about 26 boats and 238 officers. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, all vessels of the Marine Police were confiscated by the Japanese forces. After the war, the Marine Police saw rapid growth with the establishment of sub-bases at Tanjong Kling, Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong by 1951. In 1952, the fleet was boosted to 68 as a result of a reorganisation of the Police Force, and rose to 70 during the Konfrontasi with Indonesia in the 1960s in light of the increased operational needs.
With the attainment of independence for Singapore in 1965, the unit was upgraded in light of increased responsibilities for the new nation. It relocated its headquarters to the new Kallang Regional Base at Kallang Basin in 1970, and became known as the Marine Division.
The Marine Division underwent a major restructuring and was renamed as the Police Coast Guard on 13 February 1993, given its expanded roles in marine security responsibilities and capabilities, including preventing the intrusion of illegal migrants and foreign government vessels, and the guarding of the Horsburgh Lighthouse on the disputed island of Pedra Branca in the Singapore Straits. The PCG officiated the reorganisation of its operations into three squadrons, namely the Interceptor Squadron, the Port Squadron and the Coastal Patrol Squadron on 7 May 1993 and launched the Special Task Squadron on 22 January 1997.
On 20 March 2006, it relocated its headquarters to its current location at Brani Regional Base, due to the planned damming of the Marina Bay and Kallang Basin. The new Police Coast Guard headquarters at Pulau Brani was officially opened on 8 February 2007 by the Minister for Home Affairs, DPM Wong Kan Seng.

Incidents and accidents

  • On 6 December 1984, police boat PX-5 left its base in Jurong for routine patrol. En route, SC Abdul Rashid Bin Mohammed Said shot SGT Chin Ah Kow in the head and threw his body overboard. PC Wahid Bin Ahmad and PC Shamsudin Bin Haji Ali were forced off the boat, and subsequently found near Pulau Senang, by which time PC Wahid had drowned and PC Shamsudin was the sole survivor. SGT Chin's body was never found.
  • On 28 December 1999, petrol bombs hurled from an escaping speedboat hit a police boat off Sembawang, although no one was hurt. The speedboat was attempting to smuggle in illegal migrants, and was later captured by the police.
  • On 3 January 2003, six officers led by DSP1 Tan Wee Wah Stephen aboard PH50 assisted in the rescue of crew on the stricken Republic of Singapore Navy ship RSS Courageous after a collision with a merchant ship, ANL Indonesia. All officers involved in the rescue were subsequently awarded with the Pingat Keberanian Polis.
  • On 11 September 2004, a collision between a PCG boat and a cabin cruiser out on a fishing trip resulted in the death of a 47-year-old Prisons officer. His partner and colleague was rescued.
  • In March 2006, a PCG craft PT34 rammed an outrigger canoe with six crew members from the Singapore Paddle Club, resulting in injuries to three canoe crew members.
  • On 13 April 2007, two Interceptor Craft of the Special Task Squadron were on ambush duty off Tuas in the vicinity of Tuas Jetty, when a speedboat with six illegal immigrants and cartons of cigarettes intruded into Singapore's territorial waters at about 9:30pm. The speedboat sped off when approached by the police, resulting in a five-minute chase which ended with a collision between one of the craft and the speedboat near Pulau Merambong. PK 50 capsized, while the speedboat was completely wrecked. Two officers were rescued from the scene within minutes with minor injuries, while SI Mohd Khalid Bin Muhamad, 41, and SSGT Heah Khim Han, 29, who were trapped in the steering compartment, were missing. Their bodies were found on 14 April 2007 at about 8:15am. Three passengers on the intruding vessels were also rescued, and a fourth man was found dead. The rest of the passengers were still missing. The two officers were the first casualties for the STS and the PCG since the latter's evolution from the Marine Division in 1993. It was also the first instance where a police boat capsized and the first police fatalities as a result of a high speed chase. Both officers were posthumously promoted to the rank of Senior Station Inspector and Senior Staff Sergeant respectively.

    Organisation

The Police Coast Guard is currently headed by Senior Assistant Commissioner Ang Eng Seng, with Deputy Assistant Commissioner Daniel Seah Kah Weng as deputy commander. It operates from four regional bases all located on the coastlines of the main island, namely the Brani Regional Base to the south, the Gul Regional Base to the west, the Lim Chu Kang Regional Base to the north and the Loyang Regional Base to the east. It also maintains a small police post on Pulau Ubin. Each of these regional bases are similarly organised to the Neighbourhood Police Centres of the SPF's Land Divisions and conduct patrols and checks within their respective maritime sectors of Singapore's territorial waters.
The entire PCG fleet is organised into three main squadrons. The Interceptor Squadron, located at both the Lim Chu Kang and Loyang regional bases, is outfitted with PC-class high-speed patrol-craft able to control, track and prevent the movement of illegal immigrants and intruding vessels all along the Straits of Johor. The Port Squadron, located at both the Gul and Brani regional bases, is equipped with the newer generation of PT-class patrol-boats and have the primary task of ensuring the security and safety of the waters of Singapore's port by responding to criminal and/or safety incidents as well as projecting a major police presence in STW. The third squadron, the Coastal Patrol Squadron, operates the largest of the PCG fleet, the PH-class Coastal Patrol Craft, to secure the far-sea passages of the eastern approaches into STW and ensure safe passage for all legitimate users. They are also tasked with protecting the Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca in the vicinity, together with the Republic of Singapore Navy.
The PCG has an elite unit known as the Special Task Squadron, which can be activated to conduct high-risk operations where high speed pursuits and increased firepower are deemed necessary to achieve their objectives. The unit played an instrumental role in the capture of one of the three armed robbers who infiltrated into Singapore by landing on Pulau Tekong in March 2004.
In June 2017, PCG introduced a new front-line unit trained in counter-assault skills and to respond to terrorist attacks in Singapore's territorial waters. This unit is known as the Emergency Response Force, similar to the Emergency Response Team of the SPF's Land Divisions and the first batch of ERF-trained officers started their maritime counter-terrorism patrols in that same month. In addition, the ERF is trained in boarding vessels ranging from small tugboats to large merchant ships to neutralise any terrorist or serious criminal activity aboard and to search for dangerous and/or explosive cargo, goods or items. It is expected that in the near future, all PCG officers are going to be trained as ERF members in view of increasing terrorist activity around the world, especially if it centers around Singapore.

Operations

The Police Coast Guard conducts 24-hour round-the-clock patrols in Singapore's territorial waters from its four regional bases, in an area of more than 200 square nautical miles. It is also responsible for maintaining law and order on most of Singapore's islands, except those which are directly accessible by road from the main island, such as Jurong Island and Sentosa, although it provides them protection and security via seaborne patrols offshore.
While piracy was the main source of concern leading to the establishment of the Marine Police way back in the early part of the 20th century, it has become almost a minor issue today with practically few to no cases of piracy in Singapore's territorial waters in the last decade. Crimes on Singapore's offshore islands or in its territorial waters are also markedly low.

Maritime Border Control

The control of illegal migrants entering Singapore's waters has become one of the most visible roles of the PCG, however, aided in part by constant media reports on such arrests. On 17 August 2006, its arrest of 22 illegal migrants in four separate incidents was touted as the largest number arrested by the PCG in a day by the media. While the number of intrusions has been drastically reduced in recent years with the acquisition of radar and other sophisticated night-vision equipment, the attraction of Singapore as a migrant destination continues to pose a constant operational challenge to the PCG. In addition, the PCG also has to deal with the lesser but daily issue of small-scale illegal fishing and similar activities in Singapore's waters from bordering Malaysian and Indonesian fishing communities.
In a further bid to thwart illegal immigrants from landing on Singapore's shores, the PCG has erected physical barriers in the form of high-fencing topped with sharp razor-wire and fitted with electrical motion-sensors along critical areas of the shoreline where such intrusions are common, including in Lim Chu Kang, on Pulau Punggol Barat, Pulau Ubin and the Western Live Firing Area on Singapore's northwestern coast. Coastal surveillance cameras are also fitted along these fences to observe any suspicious or illegal movement. By the end of December in 2003, the total length of coastal fencing had reached 24.7 kilometres, although there were some protests over the potential environmental hazards the fencing may pose to natural amphibious species, particularly on Pulau Ubin and Singapore's northwestern shoreline. The PCG attempted to allay these fears by informing that the fencing is constructed in such a manner to allow small animals to pass below it safely.
Included in the bid to thwart illegal immigrants, the PCG has employed Unmanned Surface Vessels in late-2017 to conduct maritime patrols and these robot-equipped boats can help in easing manpower issues after their field-test and the speed is 30 knots. The USVs have two versions in length; one is 9 metres long and the other is 16 metres long. They lack any armament, unlike current PCG boats, but are still equipped with searchlights, a radar, sensors, electro-optic cameras and loudspeakers, as well as an on-board automatic fire-extinguishing system. Besides USVs, the PCG is also rolling out the use of small police drones to assist in its checks on vessels difficult to board, such as loaded barges or vessels with low draft.