![]() "I want to emphasise that the protection that we will be according to officers is not unconditional," said Mr Tan, adding that the liability of supervisors in the chain of command will depend on the facts of each case. This is also the case if a police officer fails to investigate a distress call by an individual known to be a target of repeated physical domestic violence, and the individual dies from injuries from the abuser. On protecting police officers from liability if they act in good faith and with reasonable care, Mr Tan gave scenarios where officers who may fail this standard.Ī police officer who makes a forced entry to arrest a suspect without first attempting to verify whether the suspect was actually there would not have acted in good faith and with reasonable care. "These powers are best exercised by the commissioner or police officers in leadership positions, and will remain that way." "We recognise that there are powers which require the specialised knowledge of a police officer who has had years of experience with policing, such as the power to disperse an unlawful assembly by military force," he said. Replying to MPs, including Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC), who had raised concerns about allowing the Commissioner of Police to delegate some powers to civilian officers, Mr Tan said the intention is to allow the commissioner to delegate more administrative powers, and not his powers of command at the front line. The authorities are also reviewing the need to equip commercial affairs officers with body cameras to aid investigations and prevent false allegations, Mr Tan said. They do not have power to seize offensive weapons, for instance. He added that these officers will only be given powers relevant to their work. Hence, the new powers are necessary to enhance operational efficiency given a recent uptick in increasingly complex commercial and financial crimes, Mr Tan said. While commercial affairs officers are able to arrest suspects, they need to ask regular police officers for help if suspects cannot post bail and need to be locked up. The Commercial Affairs Department now has about 130 commercial affairs officers and 90 regular police officers, he added. ![]()
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