Close to 300 participants from the Security Industry and Fire Safety Managers’ Association (Singapore) attended the Industry Safety & Security Watch Group (iSSWG) counter-terrorism seminar held at Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability on Tuesday, 24 January 2017. Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of National Development, Mr Desmond Lee, was the Guest-of-Honour at the event.
This is the sixth in a series of counter-terrorism seminars organised by SPF and SCDF for various industries under the ambit of SGSecure. The seminars aim to raise awareness, sensitise, train and mobilise the different industry professionals to guard against terrorist threats, and provide an opportunity for them to network and share industry best practices. The inaugural seminar was held for the Retail Industry on 18 July 2016.
Role of security professionals in terror attack
The security industry personnel and fire safety managers are our first line of defence in preventing and responding to a terror attack. They also serve as first responders in helping to save lives. The seminar helped refresh our security professionals’ knowledge in remaining vigilant, detecting threats, and looking out for tell-tale indicators for suspicious persons and vehicles. This is timely amidst the change in tactics adopted by terror groups, such as the vehicle attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016, and the shooting at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Day in 2017.
During the seminar, participants were updated on the security situation by speakers from the Home Team. They were also trained on what they could do to enhance the safety and security of their premises, and critical emergency response skills to better manage and handle security-related situations. A speaker from the Singapore Business Federation also spoke about the importance of having a Business Continuity Plan, to ensure that companies were able to restore normalcy as quickly as possible after a terror attack.
Support from our security professionals
Many security professionals have been pro-active in attending anti-terrorism courses offered by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). WDA has seen an increase in participant rates, of which 95% comprise active security officers from in-house security departments or security agencies. We hope that personnel in the Security Industry continue to upgrade their skills.
“The Union of Security Employees (USE) is fully supportive of the SGSecure movement as the terrorism threat is on the rise and is getting nearer to our shores. USE has been educating its members on the need to remain vigilant at all times as Security Officers are deployed all over Singapore and can provide valuable information to the Singapore Police Force on any suspicious happenings. USE strongly encourages all Security Officers to continuously upgrade themselves with new skills to better manage and handle security related situations.”
- Mr Hareenderpal Singh s/o Gurmeet Singh, Executive Council President of the Union of Security Employees (USE)
“We have to work together with our security colleagues to ensure that we train the employees and occupants in the building to be observant, vigilant, and to spot any suspicious person or items. Every fire safety agency is on alert and the FSMAS conducts regular training courses and seminars for our 1,700 members. We have an annual fire safety managers' briefing attended by close to 5,000 fire safety agencies. Every quarter since last year, we also train smaller groups of 200 people on emergency preparedness”
- Mr Benedict Koh, President of Fire Safety Managers’ Association of Singapore
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
24 January 2017 @ 3:45 PM