It’s better to be safe than sorry, and so the police are upping their game when it comes to protecting crowded establishments in Singapore, especially shopping centres. Speaking yesterday at the Singapore Police Force’s first counter-terrorism seminar for the business community, Tanjong Pagar MP Melvin Yong said “the police will be engaging the management of commercial buildings, including retail malls, to develop contingency plans and conduct joint exercises to enhance their readiness to deal with any attack.”
This is all the more important now, in light of the recent terror events across the globe.
To start, retail establishments can join forces to create a network of information. The Orchard Road Business Association has already begun moving towards employing counter-terrorism initiatives, according to The Straits Times. It’s working to increase the number of monitoring systems and collaborating with the agencies to come up with preparations like joint exercises for mass evacuations or in-house training for various complexes.
“We need our community to do its part in keeping Singapore safe, for it is not a matter of ‘if’ a terror attack will happen here, but a matter of ‘when’ it will happen,” Yong declared.
It seems like the implementation of bag checks at every mall entrance could very well be a possibility in the near future — you know, the ones you already see in countries like Thailand and Indonesia.
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