SINGAPORE: On the outside, the Singapore Police Force’s new fast response car has all the bells and whistles of a sophisticated, smart vehicle: A remote-controlled searchlight on the roof, sensors under the side view mirrors, and cameras on the front, sides and back.

But look inside the rear cabin and you will find a space that is almost threadbare. There are no leather seats, compartments or cup holders, just hard raised platforms with anti-slip grooves and a large screen separating the front cabin from the rear.

It is clear that this new car is not about passenger comfort, but using technology and functional design that is best suited for the job.

The absence of conventional seats means people in custody cannot hide objects between the cushions, police explained during a media event on Thursday (Jul 30) showcasing the new vehicle.

The hard surfaces are curved to make space for suspects in handcuffs, and easy to clean for an uncooperative few who might vomit or sweat a lot.

Even the seatbelt is designed such that police officers do not have to reach across suspects to help them buckle up. This protects officers from headbutts and sneak attacks.

The police said it will progressively roll out about 300 of these purpose-built Hyundai Tucson sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for use in the Ground Response Force, or neighbourhood police, operations. The new cars are expected to replace the current fleet of saloon patrol cars by 2024.

An SUV gives officers a better field of view due to its higher profile, said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ng Li Ki, operations officer at the Frontline Policing Division’s operations department.

READ: Traffic Police get new fleet of BMW cars for expressway patrols

“I think we have good officers who always think of how new technology can be used to improve the job functions,” he said. “When it’s something that you’re doing day in, day out, you’re at risk with certain things, you will think of new ways of doing things.”

For one, visual sensors on the car automatically detect vehicle number plates on the move, sniffing out wanted vehicles while determining their make and colour.

The car’s external cameras can livestream 360-degree, high-resolution footage of the surroundings to the police operations command centre.

The car does not only have blinkers, a siren and a public announcement system, but also speakers that emit a low-frequency rumble to warn other road users. A spotlight can be mounted on the roof for use in low light conditions and search operations.

Some of these cars will also be used to test modular capabilities, like an integrated drone disruption function. This is one example of how the police is adapting to evolving threats, DSP Ng said.

Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police How Kwang Hwee, director of operations, said the new car will further improve the operational effectiveness and safety of ground officers.

“Officers’ feedback has been an integral part of the vehicle’s conceptualisation and development, and there has been much attention to detail on the features that have been included,” he said.

While the current fleet of fast response cars – comprising models like the Hyundai Elantra – is retrofitted to suit operational needs, this new batch is built with all its features from scratch. The new car was conceptualised in 2017 before production began two years later.

The police worked with the Home Team Science and Technology Agency on the car’s functional design and technology, calling it a “milestone” in developing vehicles customised for operational requirements.

NUMBER PLATE RECOGNITION

For instance, the car’s number plate recognition technology automates a job that usually involves officers keeping their eyes peeled for wanted cars, like those which might have been stolen.

The system is hooked up to a police database and will highlight wanted plate numbers in red on a dashboard screen. Police said this ensures officers do not have to divert their attention from ongoing tasks.

“There are various other things it can pick up depending on the weather and lighting conditions … like the model and the make,” DSP Ng said.

“But it’s not something that is absolutely foolproof. So what we are most attuned to for the particular function, really, is the ability to detect and match it against our database.”

VIDEO RECORDING SYSTEM

The car’s cameras that can stream footage to the command centre will allow for better incident management, police said, adding that the system works using 4G and eventually 5G technology.

DSP Ng said this allows the command centre to see, through the vehicle, what is going on in different neighbourhoods and parts of Singapore.

“It’s helpful because you can have a first-eye glance. When the officer reports this and that, you also have a visual of what’s taking place,” he said.

“And that’s something which is quite important for us, especially when we try to look towards higher technology, interpreting this footage and data, assessing how many resources to send and things like that.”

MORE CONVENIENCE FOR OFFICERS

Technology is also used in the car’s boot, where radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensors automatically tell officers via the dashboard screen if they are missing standard issue items that come with each car. These RFID-tagged items include helmets, vests and shields.

Police said this helps officers account for their equipment and streamline their work processes.

The front seats are ergonomically contoured to ensure officers wearing equipment like tasers and revolvers on their belts can get in and out of the car smoothly, and drive for long hours more comfortably.

“We cannot just keep adding (equipment) and just trusting that officers’ backs are okay,” DSP Ng said. “So, we also cater for that inside this vehicle.”

The next-generation fast response car will be part of the National Day Parade mobile column that is set to move through the heartlands of Woodlands, Bishan and Geylang Serai on Aug 9.

SINGAPORE: Personal protective gear like masks and face shields has been in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, and perhaps no one knows this better than a team tasked with ensuring that frontline healthcare workers have whatever they need. 

Such things are just a few out of the 2,600 items that the team from the National University Hospital’s (NUH) Materials Management Department is in charge of.

Behind the scenes, the team has been ensuring that their colleagues do not run out of the essential “armour” that is needed in the fight in the disease that has infected more than 52,000 people in Singapore.

READ: 307 new COVID-19 infections in Singapore, including 1 community case and 5 imported

“We have to keep more stock just in case there’s an event where the vendor has a stock-out issue, then we’ll be able to support the end user. So therefore we stock up a little bit, especially those fast-moving (items), whereby we want to keep about a month’s worth of supplies,” said logistics manager Ryan Chiam.

These fast-moving items include blood tubes, needles and gauze, he said. 

He was speaking during a media tour of the department’s storage facility at the basement in one of NUH’s buildings.

MORE MANUAL WORK TO BE DONE

The heart of the team of more than 50 staff members are the storekeepers. They typically do a physical check to find out what is needed by each clinic, ward or operating theatre and inform a team member, who then gives the go-ahead for these items to be issued.

The storekeepers walk down rows and rows of items arranged according to their material group at the storage facility, loading up their trolleys while armed with a list.

They then push these trolleys to the different destinations within the hospital grounds, and help to unpack and arrange the products in  utility rooms. It is this manual work that has increased with the pandemic, as the need for replenishment comes faster.

“PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is something that we used to top up maybe two or three times a week. Now, we have to go every day,” said Mr Kenny Tang, who heads the team.

Mr Tang said that many storekeepers have been with the hospital for decades, with half of the team aged between 50 and 68. 

“Being an old hospital, there’s very limited IT (Information Technology) solutions or technology that we can leverage on, so it’s still a very manual process.”, he said.

“It’s very hard on my staff. This is Kent Ridge right? The terrain is not a flat thing where you can go around easily.”

WORKING WITH A LEANER TEAM

On top of that, the team also receives a higher number of urgent requests for supplies.

Senior executive assistant Lim Chun Bin said that before COVID-19, there would be two to three such requests a day, but now there are about 10. There were also fewer items being requested then. Now, there could be more than 20 items being requested.

“Usually they are requesting for those protective covers, like the gowns, the masks, and stuff like that,” she said. 

“The requests come in quite fast, so even on my non-working days, I also do check my email and try to respond to them,” she added.

READ: COVID-19: Some beaches ‘extremely crowded’ last weekend, Masagos warns against complacency

The team also provides supplies to support the medical teams providing care at foreign worker dormitories, and around 40 per cent of their COVID-19 related supplies like N95 masks, gloves and gowns go there.

The increased workload comes at a time when the team on any given day has become leaner, due to split-team work arrangements. The employees work alternate days, including on weekends, and work longer hours each day. They are supported by temporary staff.

The full-time employees now work from 8am to 9pm.

ENSURING SUPPLIES EVEN WHEN IT’S DIFFICULT

Other than performing more manual work, the team has also had to get creative in making sure sufficient supplies are kept on hand. 

Corporate gift vendors may not be the first to come to mind when trying to get a supply of face shields, but they are precisely the people Mr Tang and his team reached out to.

Mr Tang said that they had to turn to “non-traditional” sources.

While most of the PPE, like masks, was drawn from a national stockpile, there were some things, like face shields, that the hospital had to bring in on its own, he said.

“Face shields were one of those things that we needed to bring in quickly and at a time where everybody’s trying to grab the face shields,” he said.

With traditional medical supply vendors facing restrictions and export limitations, they relied on these gift vendors to get supplies from China, he said.

Another issue during the pandemic has been an increase in prices for items like disposable pillow covers bandages, dressings and alcohol swabs, he said. 

“We are beginning to see vendors increasing their prices, and we are trying to manage them as well to make sure that, you know, any increase is reasonable,” he said.

“Part of our responsibility is to manage the healthcare costs as well.”

LESSONS AND MOVING FORWARD

While it may not be possible to improve on every aspect of  manual work, on the cards are efforts to include technology that can relieve storekeepers of at least some work.

“We don’t have much technology … but we are going to introduce some to help relieve them so that they can be more efficient in their work,” Mr Chiam said.

READ: Not all face masks are created equal — 7 things to consider to protect yourself

From this month, storekeepers will no longer have to physically go to wards to check on the level of stocks. The hospital is introducing a system which involves nurses alerting the department on low supplies through technology.

“You will actually save so-called the manpower for this person to go to the ward to check stocks,” Mr Chiam added.

“One of the key things we did is that now, we tried to collect more data, after going through COVID-19, at least the first few months,” said Mr Tang.

Among the data is the utilisation of the PPE, which he believes will come in handy in the face of another pandemic.

At the end of the day, Mr Tang is very clear on the role that the team plays in the hospital eco-system- an important one, even if it is not in the spotlight.

“We fill the hands that heal. To me, these are six very meaningful words that describe what we do.”

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SINGAPORE: It started rather innocuously. At first, there was a tentative peek through the grille in the yard. 

Then a longer sitting on the ledge. And then the audacious fly in to look for food – in the bin, on the countertop, in the dog’s bowl.

When I first spotted them some months ago, I went into quite an unnecessary frenzy – which involved some shouting, brandishing of a broom and cussing.

Since I have been working from home, I have noticed the increased frequency with which these pesky birds have been coming into my home. And I began to wonder – have they always been coming in, just that no one was around to notice them?

It’s quite unlikely because one thing about these mynas – they poo everywhere. Even if they are in for less than a minute, there are droppings to show evidence of their exact flight path.

So this is most certainly new. First, I had to figure out what to do. Who better than Internet people with real world wisdom?

READ: Commentary: Why I still stay home most days even though circuit breaker has been lifted

MYNA BATTLING STRATEGIES

I was surprised at how many people had the same problem as me. Google “Help, how do I stop mynas from coming into my home?” and you’ll get a bunch of answers from forums everywhere.

The first answer was a bit of a letdown: “Close the window?”

Well, I don’t have a window, it’s one of those old buildings with grilles.

Another was more promising: “Hang a model of a hawk or eagle on your window. Apparently, kites in the shape of a hawk does well.”

The person helpfully suggested places (such as Daiso) where one could purchase a fake hawk or eagle.

But that suggestion was quickly shut down – mynas are apparently rather clever and they will know soon enough if you were pulling a lame trick.

The next one involved quite a lot of work, but was quite fascinating.

“What helped for us is scaring the crap out of one once it was inside. Close windows and doors and put a bit of fear into it as it tries to find a way out frantically. It’ll freak out, fly into windows, balcony doors and altogether regret entering the house. Then open the windows and let it go. Word will get around.”

I liked the concept of “word will get around” – which implied these guys were a tightly-knit gang who shared intelligence during regular meetings about which house was a weak link and which ones had people who would torture birds.

But I really couldn’t stomach the idea of a freaked out bird flailing about in my house. That would traumatise me, not the bird.

READ: Commentary: The wonder of clear skies and returning wildlife is our new climate problem

Read: Commentary: The truth behind returning wildlife is less feel-good than you think

Then, there was the quintessentially Asian take on things. “Set a rat trap, catch it and cook it, can BBQ.” Okay, no.

The most sensible advice was, just avoid putting any food out, cover your bins and if possible draw the blinds or create a mesh. The idea is – taking away their food source is the best way to keep them out.

COVID-19 AND CHANGES TO THE NATURAL WORLD

This whole business with the birds has a deeper pattern and the pandemic has only thrown this into much sharper focus.

Elizabeth Clarke, Conservation Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore, in a CNA commentary written in June this year, put it in simple terms: In most cases, these animals are simply searching for food.

During the circuit breaker, and even now, when so many of us are still home, their usual sources of food – trash left out at food centres chiefly – have diminished. Inevitably, they need to expand their reach and this is where man versus wild come into play.

Those otters who walked into a hospital and ate expensive fish in a pond, the cobra that greeted Marsiling MRT commuters, the wild boars that roamed Pasir Ris – all point to evidence of the “wilding” of urban spaces.

But nature experts point out that humans have a natural tendency to act out of fear.

When the otters ate up those expensive koi, there were calls to cull the otter population which has grown to about 90 strong. Snakes have been reportedly beaten to death when they stray into home gardens.

I will be the first to admit that if I spot a snake, I am not going to marvel at how beautiful it is. Nor am I going to be nice with an aggressive monkey who wants my packet of Milo.

LEARNING TO LIVE WITH THE WILD

Yet, we do need to do better by these creatures. To be educated, to find the right resources and know what to do when we do encounter them. To this end, the Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS) has loads of useful information on its website.

Its section of what to do when you encounter wild animals is especially useful – the one on snakes starts by saying: “Resist the urge to attack it with a broom or stick”. Mental note: Brooms are bad things.

In the interest of learning more about my daily visitors, I read up on them. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the common myna is the third most invasive species in the world but the ones found in Singapore are of the Javan variety.

The Singapore Bird Group says the Javan myna is the most common resident bird in Singapore and they helpfully add that these guys have “probably annoyed more people here than any other bird species”.

They have grown in numbers and a combination of deforestation (in other parts of Southeast Asia where they came from), climate change and intense urbanisation have led to the rise in their numbers and more importantly, of them seeking out urban spaces.

It’s easy to call the Town Council and get them to get rid of these birds so we can live peaceful lives but that would deprive our clawed companions of living their own free lives. The challenge is to find a balance – a way of each living together without one overrunning the other.

So in the interest of co-existing, I might call a truce with the mynas who vex me on a daily basis. For a start, I shall hold off on the broom.

Crispina Robert is an editor at CNA Digital News where she oversees podcasts.