Singapore DPM says security breach at Woodlands checkpoint not acceptable - Bernama

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Teo Chee Hean (pic) says the security breach at the Woodlands checkpoint last month involving a Malaysian woman and the subsequent action resulting in her arrest three days later are 'not acceptable'.

He said the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) and police ground commanders had made an error of judgement and classified the incident, which occurred on Jan 17, as a less serious one - an immigration offence.

In an oral reply to parliamentary questions on the matter, Teo, who is also the co-coordinating minister for national security, said appropriate disciplinary action would be taken against the officers and their supervisors.

Relating the incident, Teo said that on January 17, 2014, at 1.58 pm, a 27-year-old woman arrived at the Woodlands checkpoint in her Malaysian car.

The woman, from Pendang, Kedah, drove past the ICA officer without going through the mandatory checks by tailgating the car in front of hers, and slipping past the drop-arm barrier, he said.

She was then detained for crashing through the security barrier at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 20, he added.

"The ICA and police ground commanders made a serious error of judgement in deciding to treat this intrusion as a less serious immigration offence, instead of a serious breach of border security, as required in the protocol.

"This was a major reason for the subsequent inadequate response which resulted in the vehicle and driver not being detected and arrested much earlier," Teo said, adding that both ground commanders had been redeployed to non-operational posts pending disciplinary action.

He said that if a vehicle made an unauthorised exit from the checkpoint, there was a security protocol for the police and ICA to treat the incident as a breach of border security and issue a high-priority alert to all ground resources.

In this case, however, he said, the ICA and police ground commanders did not follow the protocol.

Teo said the ICA and police did not issue a heightened and persistent alert, with the description of the car and driver, that would have alerted all ground forces to continue looking for them when they conducted vehicular searches, checks and screening. - Bernama, February 17, 2014.