Orchard Neighbourhood Police Centre (OR NPC) launched the Tanglin Division Safe Shopping Campaign and Retail Watch Group (RWG) @ Orchard at Wisma Atria on Friday, 20 May 2016 at 3pm.
The Guest-of-Honour for the event was Ms Joan Pereira, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC.
The Tanglin Division Safe Shopping Campaign and Retail Watch Group at Orchard, are supported by the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA) and the Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA), consisting of retailers from the major shopping malls along Orchard Road shopping belt.
Safe Shopping Campaign and Retail Watch Group @ Orchard
The Safe Shopping Campaign aims to promote a pleasant and secure shopping environment for both shoppers and retailers. This is done by forging and leveraging on the close cooperation between the Police and community stakeholders. To support this campaign, the RWG at Orchard was formed. This is a group consisting of Police, mall owners and retailers. The group allows Police to work closely with the retail industry, to develop various crime prevention and security awareness initiatives. Through regular meetings, chat groups and e-newsletters, members of the RWG will be able to receive and share crime-related information such as crime statistics, trending modus operandi, as well as timely advisories and strategies to safeguard their businesses from crime. Police will also leverage on RWG to gather crime related feedback and information.
Prior to this launch, Police has conducted crime prevention training to participating malls and retailers of the watch group. A training video and quick reference guide were produced to help retailers educate their staff to effectively prevent, deter and detect shop thefts. In addition, members were taught to proactively look out for suspicious items and persons especially during the GSS period.
Shoppers-On-Watch (SHOW)
On the other hand, Shoppers-On-Watch (SHOW), a new initiative aimed to support the same campaign, encourages shoppers themselves to be vigilant and alert while shopping and dining. Shoppers can assist to look out for one another’s belongings and report any suspicious behaviour, activities or articles to the security staff or Police so that timely actions could be taken to prevent, deter or detect crime and terror-related activities. This initiative is in line with SG Secure, the new national movement to engage, sensitise and train, organise, mobilise and exercise Singaporeans to better protect ourselves from an attack and safeguard our way of life. SG Secure seeks to empower Singaporeans to stay alert, stay united and stay strong in the face of the terrorist threats. The public can also download the Police@SG mobile application to learn more about the new i-Witness function, which is part of SG Secure. i-Witness is a new one-stop online platform for members of public to provide the Police with information on crimes, traffic offences, and security crises.
Enhanced Police Presence
To complement these initiatives, police presence will also be enhanced. In addition to patrols on the streets and in the malls, Police will also deploy plainclothes officers at shopping malls to prevent, deter or detect crime and terror-related activities. Where necessary, these plainclothes officers will remind shoppers to secure their belongings and provide relevant crime prevention advice.
Opening address for the event by Guest-of-Honour Ms Joan Pereira, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC
From left to right: Mr Tan Boon Piin (Executive Committee Member, Orchard Road Business Association), Assistant Commissioner of Police Tan Chia Han, (Commander, Tanglin Division), Ms Joan Pereira (Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC) and Mr Anthony Gan (Executive Director, Singapore Retailers Association) launching the Safe Shopping Campaign and Retail Watch Group @ Orchard
Commanding Officer Orchard NPC Superintendent Toh Pei Lian (left) and Station Inspector Chang Lian Seng from the Community Policing Unit (right) sharing some of our crime prevention efforts with Ms Joan Pereira
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
20 May 2016 @ 7:45 PM