HOME TEAM ACADEMY • 2018 ISSUE NO 7 HOME TEAM BY PRACTITIONERS, JOURNAL FOR PRACTITIONERS

Cover Story TRANSFORMING THE HOME TEAM Planning & Organisation Division and Human Resource Division, Ministry of Home Affairs

THE GROWING NEED FOR ADVOCACY AGAINST ILLICIT DRUGS Dr. Rozlan Giri, Sivaraman Letchumanan and Nur Asyikin Hamzah

Special Feature on Counter-Terrorism THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND SINGAPORE’S TERRORIST REHABILITATION STRATEGY AND BEST PRACTICES IN COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM Counter-Terrorism Division, Internal Security Department HOME EDITORIAL BOARD CHAIRPERSON TEAM T. Raja Kumar DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON JOURNAL Teo Tze Fang CHIEF EDITOR The Home Team Journal is a Winston Wong Sung-En publication by the Home Team Academy in collaboration with DEPUTY CHIEF EDITOR the Ministry of Home Affairs of Lim Jing Jing Singapore and its departments, which are collectively known as the Home Team. The journal EDITORIAL CONSULTANT publishes articles and reviews on Susan Sim issues relating to the Home Team and its core competencies. DEPARTMENTAL EDITORS Elton Yeo It aims to be a platform to share Gobiselven Govindasamy knowledge and new insights, Jane Quek stimulate critical thinking and Jasmin Kaur discussion among the Home Team Jaswant Singh community, and reach out to Raymond Lim our stakeholders and the global Suhara community of practitioners in national safety and security. Tan Teck Tien Winsome Chow

Please address all contributions and correspondence to: Home Team Journal Editorial Board Planning and Organisation Development Centre Home Team Academy 501 Old Choa Chu Kang Road, Singapore 698928

For comments and feedback, please mail to MHA _HT [email protected]. CONTENTS HOME TEAM ACADEMY • 2018 ISSUE NO 7

FOREWORD 04 by Loh Ngai Seng INTRODUCTION BY 05 by T. Raja Kumar CHAIRPERSON COVER STORY 07 Transforming the Home Team Planning & Organisation Division and Human Resource Division, Ministry of Home Affairs TECHNOLOGY 18 Harnessing the Power of Technology Dr. Jonathan Pan and Grace Koh 25 Use of Analytics in Operations Dr. Melvinder Singh and Mark Toh 31 Use of Virtual Reality Technology in Training: Shazwani Babjee THOUGHT 38 Growing Thought Leadership and Capacity in Safety LEADERSHIP and Security Jason Jevanathan 40 Building a Vibrant Eco-system for the Home Team to Deal with Cybersecurity & Cybercrime Threats Michael Ong 46 The Growing Need for Advocacy against Illicit Drugs 57 AODC in Action Dr. Rozlan Giri, Sivaraman Letchumanan and Nur Asyikin Hamzah TERRORISM 70 Evolution of Terrorism Threat to Singapore Counter-Terrorism Division, Internal Security Department 75 Building the SGSecure Movement Tan Jin Rui Jerald 81 The Psychology Behind Singapore’s Terrorist Rehabilitation Strategy & Best Practices In Countering Violent Extremism Counter-Terrorism Division, Internal Security Department 87 Comparing ISIS Foreign Fighters versus Sympathisers: Insights from their Twitter Postings Neo Loo Seng, Dr. Majeed Khader, Dr. Joyce S Pang 107 The Seven Things You Need To Know About Lone- Actor Terrorism Dr. Paul Gill

Copyright ©2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication (i.e. content and images) may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Home Team Academy. The opinions expressed in this issue are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Home Team Academy. 4 FOREWORD Foreword I am delighted to contribute the foreword to this 7th edition of the Home Team Journal. This is a special edition, and a particularly relevant one for all Home Team officers, as it paints a clear and exciting picture of the on- going Home Team Transformation 2025.

Having served with the Home Team for 15 years, I can say with quiet opti- mism that the changes are significant. Working together, the Home Team is evolving rapidly to prepare itself for the future.

The Home Team is facing challenges that make transformation not only necessary, but also crit- ical. Traditional crimes now have a new online dimension in the form of transnational cyber- crime. The short time it now takes for an individual to become self-radicalised and the use of readily available tools to cause harm to others combine to make it much harder to prevent a terrorist attack. Drug cartels have moved into new substances and modes of delivery, and we are also grappling with the risks of malicious disinformation posed by fake news.

The Home Team has leveraged technology extensively to equip us with capabilities to deal with these new threats. This starts with a re-think of our concept of operations by each Home Team Department and how the right technology (not necessarily cutting edge) can enable a new way of working. One example is our ability to collect and analyse data effectively to deploy limited resources in a much more targeted and efficient manner.

Our Home Team officers are therefore at the heart of Home Team Transformation 2025. They are the agents of change. Training is the only way to prepare officers to perform their jobs well. My Home Team colleagues know that I like to use the analogy of a professional football team – if football teams only played matches, and did not invest time to train as a team as well as to hone their individual skills, team performance will soon plateau. Thus, making time for training, building a culture where individual officers are motivated and empowered to constantly upgrade their skills, are key to keeping our officers ready and confident to deal with a rapidly-changing operating environment.

Having worked closely with many Home Team officers in driving various pieces of the Home Team Transformation, I have deep respect for their professionalism, sense of mission, and will- ingness to take risks and drive change. I am confident that under its new leadership, the Home Team will continue to grow from strength to strength, and keep Singapore and Singaporeans safe and secure.

Loh Ngai Seng Permanent Secretary (Transport) [2nd Permanent Secretary (Home Affairs) from January 2016 to August 2017]

The Journal takes this opportunity to thank Mr Loh Ngai Seng for his service to the Home Team. Mr Loh served in various capacities in the Ministries of Defence, Education and Home Affairs before his appointment as Director of the Internal Security Department in September 2010 and Second Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2016. As 2PS (Home Affairs), Mr Loh constantly pushed us to reach for new frontiers without losing sight of the mission or the officer. We wish him the best in his new appointment as PS (Transport). HOME TEAM JOURNAL 5 Introduction by Chairman Since the 1990s, disruptive innovation has impacted lifestyles and up- ended businesses in sectors such as retail, communications, transport and accommodation. The safety and security landscape is also being buffeted by the winds of dramatic change. In an environment rife with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, the Home Team has been thinking and working hard to ensure our continued effectiveness into the next 10 years through the Home Team Transformation 2025 initiative. This 7th issue of the Journal offers a peek into the future of the Home Team, showing how the Home Team and its officers are rising to the challenges that lie ahead.

The first article, co-written by officers from the Planning & Organisation and Human Resource Divisions of the Ministry of Home Affairs, explains the transformation impetus and how the Home Team is managing the changes through strategic workforce planning.

Among the most visible changes arising from the Home Team Transformation 2025 are new technologies that improve our effectiveness. The Home Team has implemented and is trying out a range of technologies. The Singapore Prison Service, for example, has had successes with analytics, Dr. Melvinder Singh and Mark Toh report as they share the lessons they learnt from the development and implementation of two analytics models. The Home Team is also exper- imenting with virtual reality technology to bring realistic training scenarios to the frontline through MobiC, a mobile classroom using a vehicular platform. In an interview, Dr. Naresh Kumar discusses the genesis of the MobiC project, its design principles and the challenges that the project team had to overcome. As Dr. Jonathan Pan and Grace Koh share in another article, the Home Team is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to analyse data captured by nationwide sensors to support officers in decision-making.

Technology brings with it risks, vulnerabilities and threats. Michael Ong, Executive Director of the Centre for Cyber Security Studies, writes about the importance of engaging collaborators from beyond the Home Team, such as industrial, academic and regional partners, to build a vi- brant ecosystem to counter cyber threats. The establishment of the Institute of Safety and Se- curity Studies, which the Centre for Cyber Security Studies is part of, reflects our recognition that operational excellence is no longer sufficient in the current security landscape. The Home Team needs to win hearts and minds, build capabilities and capacity, and strive for thought leadership in the local community, among foreign counterparts, and in the international arena.

For example, we have been effective in containing the local drug problem by adopting a tough and stringent approach against drugs and crime. However, many are unaware that Singapore has adopted a comprehensive approach to tackling drugs and crime – covering prevention, de- tection, and rehabilitation. Recognising that there is a need to share our story on how we have kept our drug and crime situation under control, an Advocacy Office against Drugs and Crime has been set up under the Institute of Safety and Security Studies to advocate for Singapore’s evidence-based approach towards the control of illicit drugs and crime. Dr. Rozlan Giri, Exec- utive Director of the Advocacy Office, explains the urgency of rebuilding the global consensus on drug control in his exposition on the harm reduction movement. 6 INTRODUCTION BY CHAIRMAN

Counter-terrorism is another area where security and enforcement methods alone are insuffi- cient to address the problem holistically. Hence, rehabilitating individual terrorists and carry- ing out community-wide counter-ideology efforts are two key weapons in our arsenal against terrorism, as explained in an article by psychologists from the Internal Security Department.

Sharing recent research, Dr. Paul Gill explains that lone actor terrorists are generally not true loners. In most cases, other individuals such as family and friends knew about the terrorist’s grievances, commitment to an extremist ideology, or intent to carry out acts of terrorism. His findings underline the importance of community engagement. The Home Team has been doing that through SGSecure, a national movement to sensitise, train, and mobilise our com- munity to partner us in the prevention of and response to a terrorist attack.

Much research is also being conducted by our Home Team psychologists on the use of social media by violent extremists, The Journal is thus pleased to publish pioneering research by Neo Loo Seng and Dr. Majeed Khader of the Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, and Dr. Joyce Pang of the Nanyang Technological University, to discover tools for identifying readiness to use violence by comparing the Twitter postings of ISIS foreign fighters with sympathisers.

It is my hope that this rich selection of essays, covering the themes of transformation, use of technology, community empowerment, and counter terrorism, show how the Home Team is rapidly evolving and developing its and the community’s capabilities to meet the operational and other challenges, and provide readers with much food for thought.

T. Raja Kumar Chairman Home Team Journal Editorial Board 7 COVER STORY TRANSFORMING THE HOME TEAM

By Planning & Organisation Division and Human Resource Division, Ministry of Home Affairs

This special issue of Home Team Journal looks at how the Home Team has been Will the Home Team be as effective transforming itself as it gears up to in the year 2025? Will we still be meet emerging challenges and evolving on top of our challenges in ten years’ time? Will we cope well with rising threats. In the first article, the Planning workload, or will we be overwhelmed? & Organisation and Human Resource Can we effectively harness exciting Divisions of the Ministry of Home new technologies, or will we be lagging Affairs discuss the driving forces that behind? Can we deal effectively with the have made Home Team Transformation implications of an ageing population 2025 an urgent imperative and explain and a very tight manpower situation? the processes underway to develop the Next-Gen Home Team Officer. If the answer to all these questions is to be “Yes”, we need to work hard to make it happen. We know for a fact that the environment we operate in, in the year n March 2015, then Permanent Secretary 2025 will be very different from today. I(Home Affairs) Leo Yip chaired the first It must then follow that for the Home Strategic Planning and Resource Manage- Team to remain effective, we cannot ment meeting in the Tanglin Conference operate in 2025 the way we work Room at New Phoenix Park, kick-starting today. the formal process of planning for the long term across the entire Home Team. The im- – Leo Yip, Permanent Secretary peratives were clear. The scale and nature of Ministry of Home Affairs (2014-2017) the challenges ahead required transformative change, not just tweaks and refinements, he told his leadership team. But transformative change took time, especially if new capabil- 8 COVER STORY

Source: HT Transformation 2025, Home Team News Bytes, an e-bulletin distributed to Home Team officers ities were to be planned for and developed, Home Team planners analysed and identified particularly in an operational ministry like four key driving forces that would shape and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The time to set the impetus for the transformation. In a push ahead with new ideas and new technol- future of higher load and lower manning, the ogies was not five years or eight years hence, Home Team would either need to transform, but immediately. Home Team Transforma- or “M.E.L.T”. tion 2025 was already happening. A More Complex Environment Over successive meetings, Home Team plan- ners repeatedly asked themselves fundamen- The Home Team’s operating environment tal questions such as: What will policing, over the next ten years will become very emergency response, drug control, correc- different and even more complex than it is tions, border security and other Home Team today. The decline in birth rates and ageing key functions look like in 2025? What new op- population has and will continue to impose erating models are required? Does the Home significant manpower constraints on the Team need to change the way it is organised Home Team. At the same time, departments and the way it trains its people? can expect rising workload, higher public ex- pectations, and new threats posed by terror- What indeed are the challenges ahead? The ism and cyber-attacks. While technology may HOME TEAM JOURNAL 9

bring about new threats, some of the new Technological Advancement technological developments are potential game-changers that can change the way the In the next ten years, there will be rapid ad- Home Team operates, as well as enhance its vances in technology. Some of the new de- operational effectiveness and efficiency. velopments, such as automation, data and video analytics, biometrics and artificial in- Growing Workload telligence, are potential game-changers. The Home Team needs to ride the wave of tech- The Home Team’s workload is rapidly rising. nological developments or risk being left be- Emergency Medical Service calls have in- hind. creased by about 5 percent annually over the past five years. Likewise, traveller and cargo Rising Public Expectations volumes are growing. In 2015, the land check- points handled close to 400,000 travellers Public expectations and the demands placed per day. With the new Changi Terminals 4 and on the Home Team have been growing in re- 5, the High-Speed Rail and the Rapid Tran- cent years, and can be expected to continue sit System coming on-stream, the volume to grow. Citizens are now more affluent and of travellers is expected to double towards educated, and require a more delicate ap- 2030. But the number of young Singaporeans proach when being engaged. The Home Team entering the workforce each year will shrink will need to constantly improve its service due to the falling birth rates. The Home Team standards and engage citizens in a more so- will face manpower constraints. The Home phisticated manner. Team cannot handle the future load and stay effective if it operates the same way as today.

Evolving Threats What will policing and other Home Team key functions look The terrorist threat Singapore faces today is like in 2025? How will we make the at its highest level since the Jemaah Islami- journey there? These are the questions yah arrests in 2001, and will likely remain so we are answering as part of the Home in the years ahead. The democratisation of Team Transformation 2025. The terrorism has inspired attacks that are diffi- answers will be contained in the new cult to pre-empt or prevent. The threat of ter- capabilities we need to build, the new rorist attacks using Chemical, Biological, Ra- ways of operating, new approaches to diological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) tackling new and evolving challenges, means is also increasing. Besides terrorism, reaping the full potential of new the nature of crime will be increasingly com- technologies, better integration across plex. Cybercrimes, such as online scams, have the Home Team, and even changing the increased sharply over the years. Cyberspace way we are organised, the jobs we do has also facilitated transnational crimes, with and the skills we need. perpetrators in overseas jurisdictions, mak- ing it challenging for the Home Team to deal – PS Leo Yip with them. Home Team Transformation e-bulletin, Nov 2016 10 COVER STORY

Developing New Operating Models inform advance deployment of HTD forces to respond rapidly to incidents. The Home Team will need to transform its traditional operating models of Policing, Tiered and Differentiated Approaches Emergency Response, Corrections, Drug Control and Checkpoint Security. The new In Policing and Emergency Medical Response, frontline operating models being developed the types or levels of resources deployed will embrace these themes: will be calibrated according to the nature and severity of incidents. HTDs will also • Joint Capabilities as One Home Team anticipate where resources may be needed • Tiered and Differentiated Approaches and deploy them in advance for a faster • Harnessing the power of technology response. For Corrections and Drug Control, • Empowering the community; and through the use of business analytics, • Developing Next-Gen Home Team rehabilitation and supervision regimes will Officers be more customised based on inmates’ and drug supervisees’ needs and risk levels. For Joint Capabilities as One Home Team Checkpoint Security, a distributed clearance model will be adopted where visitors to The Home Team will develop joint capabilities Singapore will be cleared based on their risk and synergise key areas of operations to profile. Those with low risk profiles can go harness the strengths of the Home Team through automated clearance channels to Departments (HTDs) as One Home Team. reduce the load on immigration officers. Given the increasingly complex operating environment, there is a possibility of greater Harnessing the power of technology occurrences of fast-burn, fast-scale incidents that necessitate rapid, often multi-HTD The Home Team will leverage technology as a responses. To address this, the Home Team key force multiplier, particularly in the areas will take a more integrated, co-ordinated of data analytics and automation. Data will approach in how HTDs conduct operations, be collated from multiple HTD sources, and intelligence, and investigation to strengthen analysed to improve situational awareness operational effectiveness. One example of a for better decision-making for the Singapore joint capability is how Joint Operations will Police Force (SPF), an integrated and be enhanced with clearer planning processes networked command harnessing data from and integrated structures. This will enable the multiple surveillance sources will provide Home Team to deploy the most appropriate officers with a timely and comprehensive Home Team resources in handling incidents, view of potential threats and criminal and to facilitate more co-ordinated ground activities. Immigration & Checkpoints action. A new Home Team Operations Centre Authority (ICA) will harvest information will be set up. It will be an integrated 24/7 co- from its service centres, inland enforcement ordination hub for managing and monitoring and checkpoints, via its next generation Home Team operations ranging from daily data platform, to enhance its situational incidents to major crises. Analytics will be awareness. Technologies such as automation harnessed to further sharpen the common and facial recognition will be used extensively situation picture obtained. Crowd analytics in the Singapore Prison Service’s transformed and predictive modelling will be used to Housing Unit and the Central Narcotics HOME TEAM JOURNAL 11

Bureau’s (CNB) next-generation reporting integral to equipping Home Team officers centres to reduce manual tasks, thus freeing with the relevant skills and competencies to up officers’ time for higher value work. perform their new roles and duties effectively. Training curriculum will be strengthened to Empowering the community ensure relevance and learning effectiveness. Training will be brought to the frontline, The Home Team will take a more targeted with the development of a mobile simulation approach to community engagement, and platform for officers to undergo virtual leverage new platforms to connect with, scenario-based training at the workplace. empower and organise the community to Officers will also be empowered to learn contribute towards the Home Team’s mission. on-the-go through the development of a A Home Team-wide Volunteers Mobile new training-and-learning application that Application is being built to help HTDs engage allows them to access and download training volunteers in the community, organise and materials onto their personal mobile devices. mobilise them. Police will expand its online influence by engaging more proactively and Managing Change through Strategic directly with the online community. The Workforce Planning Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) will extend the reach and effectiveness of its The HTT2025 is a massive undertaking that outreach through the enhanced Community requires more than a shift in resources. Driv- Emergency Preparedness Programme. And ing change in an organisation as large as the CNB will expand and strengthen its advocacy Home Team is not easy; effective change and network with different community management will be important. The human groups in its fight to keep drugs off the element - buy-in of leaders and officers at ev- streets. All these will strengthen the national ery level of the organisation, is at the heart of movement of SGSecure to protect Singapore any successful transformation. Often, this is from a terrorist attack. also the most challenging aspect to manage. Management needs to engage officers in a Developing Next-Gen Home Team Officers sustained manner, explain to them the impe- tus for change, and show them the potential Even as Home Team Transformation that the transformation holds for the Home 2025 places more emphasis on new ways Team. Leaders need to listen and address the of operating and a greater adoption of concerns of their people, and support them technology, the Home Team needs to ensure in coping with the changes. that its people continue to be ready to support its mission of keeping Singapore safe Strategic workforce planning is a key enabler and secure. To develop the next generation to align the development and optimisation of Home Team workforce, Home Team planners workforce capabilities with the organisation’s are reviewing how the workforce should be strategy. In several global organisations such structured and sized in the most optimal way, as IBM, Hewlett Packard, and HCL Tech- refining the roles and skillsets that officers nologies, and government agencies such as will need in future. Most importantly, the Toronto Police Service, Police Federation of Home Team is changing the way it trains its England & Wales, British West-Midlands Po- officers. Given the changes expected in Home lice, Federal Bureau of Investigations in the Team Transformation 2025, training will be US and Australia’s New South Wales Police 12 COVER STORY

Force, strategic workforce planning has been increase in the demand for emergency med- instrumental to organisational leaders in ef- ical services between 2015 and 2025 due to fectively transforming their organisations’ Singapore’s ageing population. Emergen- business models, and empowering them to cy medical calls are projected to increase make better decisions about how they man- from approximately 165,000 calls in 2015 to age and develop their workforce to meet fu- 290,000 calls in 2025. It is thus essential for ture organisational goals (Young, 2006). the SCDF to fully understand the impact of this trend on its workforce and identify ap- The Ministry’s Human Resource Division propriate strategies – both operational and (HRD) spearheaded the Ministry’s strategic workforce strategies – to deal with this fore- workforce planning initiative and set up joint seeable future demand. Clarity of the future Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) work- workforce implications arising from its en- groups at each of the Departments in end hanced or new operating concepts will then 2015 to determine the workforce implications enable SCDF to put in place initiatives that of the transformation plans and develop a will facilitate the internal redeployment of workforce strategy blueprint that will enable its workforce to areas in demand through re- the Home Team to develop a workforce well- skilling and retraining. poised to realise the Home Team’s transfor- mation plans. Reskilling and Retraining - A Priority

Determining the Home Team Workforce The reskilling, retraining and development of of the Future the Home Team workforce is a priority as it is the key to successful transformation. Reskill- What is the structure, capabilities and size ing will enable officers to take on higher val- (including workforce mix) that the Home ue work progressively and competently when Team will need in 2025 to manage future new concepts of operations are introduced challenges and achieve desired organisation- and existing jobs are re-designed to leverage al outcomes? Development of strategic work- new equipment and technologies. force plans require joint commitment and collaboration between Ministry Headquar- For example, SPF frontline officers will need ters and HTDs as the plans need to address to be trained to use pistols which will replace the unique workforce requirements of each their revolvers while Police Coast Guard of- department and be in alignment with Minis- ficers will need to be trained in counter-as- try-wide strategic directions. The joint SWP sault skills and use of sub-machine guns and in each department distilled the workforce carbines so that they will be able to respond implications of the respective department’s to terrorist attacks and other threats in Sin- transformation plan and took into consider- gapore waters. Beyond new equipment, as the ation the external and internal driving forces Home Team leverages analytics and data, of- and constraints (including manpower trends ficers will also need to be trained to handle, and shifts), in order to develop a set of work- synthesise and sense-make large amounts of force strategies and plans to bridge workforce information. Increasing automation of tasks gaps and achieve the workforce needed in will also free up officers from routine tasks 2025. for higher value-added work, such as sharp- ening profiling and first response capabilities For example, there is a projected 65 percent for ICA officers. HOME TEAM JOURNAL 13

To identify the new skillsets that Home Team new challenges. officers need in order to progressively imple- ment new concepts of operations over the Capturing Hearts and Minds immediate one to two years, a Skills Transfor- mation and Development Taskforce compris- The readiness of the different groups of ing members from across the Home Team Home Team officers to embrace the changes Departments was set up. The Taskforce was and prepare themselves for new challenges is also given the mandate to identify training paramount to whether the Home Team can gaps and propose approaches to train officers effectively roll out its transformation plans, in key skills identified. including reskilling and retraining officers to achieve desired outcomes. The Home Team will subsequently trans- late the Taskforce’s recommendations into To this effect, Home Team leaders started a appropriate training programmes for Home transformation change management effort Team officers. As the Corporate University two years ago to help Home Team officers at for the Home Team, the Home Team Acad- all levels - from the leadership group, mid- emy (HTA) is also partnering established dle managers to the last man on the ground institutes of higher learning to provide cus- - appreciate and understand the impetus and tomised pathways for Home Team officers to need for the Home Team to transform. Sev- obtain academic and professional qualifica- eral avenues such as townhall sessions and tions, as part of efforts to encourage personal focus group discussions (led by the Home development and upgrading. Team’s top leadership) were conducted to engage and keep every officer across the The Home Team is also investing significant Home Team informed of the transforma- resources to enhancing its training facilities tion effort. These sessions also served to ex- and leveraging new training delivery meth- cite and involve Home Team officers in the ods to bring effective, bite-sized learning transformation journey by providing oppor- programmes closer to officers. Over the next tunities for officers to share their concerns, few years, the training facilities at the Civil provide feedback on future organisational ca- Defence Academy will also be revamped to pabilities and skills as well as to co-create the give SCDF officers enhanced and more real- desired future. istic training. This will help to improve their response capabilities to different types of These engagement sessions were comple- emergency situations on the ground. mented by the dissemination of materials such as slides, digital infographics, videos and The Home Team officer of the future is envi- FAQs through multiple platforms (emails, sioned to be a digitally conversant, technolog- intranet and hardcopy). Besides serving as ically savvy and smart data user with strong handy references for officers, these materi- security acumen and excellent soft skills to als also facilitated communication with offi- engage and develop deep partnerships with cers who were not able to attend the briefing the strategic stakeholders such as local com- sessions. Officers were also actively engaged munities, businesses and international part- in different work streams of HTT2025 initia- ners. The future Home Team officer needs to tives such as project teams or as facilitators be adaptable and resilient to maintain a high of engagement sessions, so that they became state of readiness and to effectively tackle fully aware of the new skill requirements for 14 COVER STORY HOME TEAM JOURNAL 15

their areas of work and the need for up-skill- ing to remain relevant in their future roles. Home Team Transformation 2025 Some useful ideas that transpired from the is a critical exercise for all of us. It discussions included the need to preserve the is to enable us to achieve a quantum ‘human touch’ and ‘ground instincts’ even as leap in preparation and capability we leverage technology, and the need to ring- building for a more complex, more fence time for training. unpredictable and faster-paced future, and where the expectations on our The Home Team is also nurturing a One shoulders to keep Singapore safe and Home Team mind-set to further strengthen secure, have never been higher. close collaboration within the Home Team. New milestone courses are being developed It sounds daunting, but seen another to address developmental needs of officers way, our ‘transformation’ is just an at key points of their careers. These cours- extension of what we are already doing es will not only allow our officers to deepen every day – see how our operating their understanding of the Home Team and environment is changing, assess the develop a Home Team perspective, they will resources available, and the new tools also provide them with the opportunity to that have become available, and adapt bond with fellow officers from other HTDs, ourselves accordingly so that we are form new networks and develop a One Home able to carry out our mission even Team mindset through shared experiences. more efficiently and effectively. I look forward to continuing this journey with you. Are We Ready? – PS Pang Kin Keong Clear transformation plans have been devel- September 2017 oped but the question remains: Is the Home Team ready for the future?

The key will be the timely and robust imple- vidual officers. Everyone needs to embrace a mentation of the transformation initiatives progressive outlook and be prepared to learn and their integration across the Home Team new skills, acquire new knowledge and un- in the coming years. Even as the Home Team dertake new roles. As officers take on new manages the current high tempo of opera- challenges and responsibilities with courage tions, it has to continue driving the imple- and determination, the Ministry of Home Af- mentation momentum, for HTT2025 is a fairs stands committed to investing in the re- massive undertaking that requires more than skilling, training and development of officers, a shift in resources. Success will require deep so that they are equipped with the right skills, transformation of the Home Team’s modus knowledge and capabilities to contribute operandi as well as the buy-in of leaders and meaningfully to the Home Team mission of officers at every level of the organisation. keeping Singapore safe and secure now and in the future. Indeed, close partnership and commitment is required from all stakeholders – senior management, middle management and indi- 16 COVER STORY

About the Authors

(From left to right) Ms Jill Tan, Senior Executive, Strategic HR Workforce, HRD; Ms Shirlyn Ng, Senior Director, Human Resource Division; Mr Jason Chen, Senior Director, Planning & Organisation Division; Mr Mirza Saad, Assistant Director (Strategic Planning, Innovation), P&O; Ms Christi Lau, Senior Assistant Director (HR Planning), HRD; and Ms Ng Huey Ling, Deputy Director, Strategic HR Workforce, HRD.

The team would like to thank Ms Amanda Chua (Deputy Director, HT Training & Learning/Skills Transformation), and Ms Teresa Cheong (Assistant Director, Strategic HR Workforce/Safety & Security) for their contributions to the article. HOME TEAM JOURNAL 17

 Human Resource Division, Ministry of Home Affairs

To develop a workforce well-poised to implement and realise the Home Team’s transformation plans, Human Resource Division of the Ministry Headquarters has formed teams to look into three areas: (i) Strategic workforce planning; (ii) Skills transformation and development; and (iii) Nurturing a One Home Team mindset in officers to strengthen collaboration and adaptability to change.

HRD has worked closely with strategic partners in the Mini