The incident brings up a host of questions on regulations regarding bouncers.

How are bouncers hired?

Are they regulated? What are the guidelines for their behaviour?

Are they properly trained?

IndoChine said it hired the bouncers from an external agency.

However, its spokesman declined to reveal which agency it was, pending its own investigations.

Mr Peter D' Cruz, 39, a club consultant who has been in the industry for eight years, said: 'Less than 30 percent of clubs with security would use an external agency.

'The bigger boys with deeper pockets are the ones who hire professional bouncers.

'Look through the Classifieds. Many pubs and clubs place advertisements looking for security officers.

'They don't call them bouncers nowadays. That is the old term.'

For example, Zouk has 70 security staff and more than 100 security cameras in place, marketing manager Tracy Philips said. They hire their own staff.

On top of engaging an external agency, big boys like St James Power Station and Ministry of Sound (MoS) also have their own security departments to train service staff to double-up as security should the need arise.

Both St James and MoS have a team of at least 50 agency bouncers. On weekends, their numbers rise to 60.

St James Power Station chief operating officer Andrew Ing said its nine outlets collectively spend about $1 million a year on security.

Mr Calvin Sio, assistant vice-president of marketing for LifeBrandz, said The Cannery, which has MoS and clubs like Cafe Del Mar and Balcony Bar under its wings, spends the same amount.

Mr Sio revealed that MoS mixes professional security guards with its guest relations staff who can recognise certain guests.

Mr Sio added: 'We remind bouncers to be service-oriented but firm.'

With so many clubs hiring their own bouncers, how much screening and training is there going on?

DXO music club, at The Esplanade, says it screens its bouncers thoroughly.

POLICE BACKGROUND CHECK

Spokesman Lim Sin Yee said: 'Recruitment is conducted via personal interviews and an assessment of prior working experience,'

Ms Lim added: 'After the first round, all particulars are sent to the CID and the police for background screening.

Under the current regulation, the Security Industry Regulatory Department, which comes under the Singapore Police Force, requires clubs to send their bouncers for compulsory screening and training.

They also have to attend the five-day National Skills Recognition System (NSRS) course conducted for all security guards.

In short, all bouncers, whether hired from a security agency or by the clubs themselves, have to attend this course in order to work at a club or nightspot.

But courses like the NSRS are insufficient for bouncers, Mr Joe Singh, 43, managing director of Saints Security Consultancy, said.

His firm deploys security to St James Power Station, clubs at The Cannery including the MoS and Bar None.

Of skills such as patrolling taught at the NSRS, Mr Singh said: 'They may be suitable for building security. The club scene requires altogether a different set of skills.'

Mr Singh, once a security manager at Europa in 1996, said: 'We teach a syllabus to the bouncers which follow the US and British club standards.'

'They know fire safety and how to evacuate a place.'

Fresh bouncers attend a four- to five-day course at Saints, and work closely under the mentorship of a senior bouncer for about a month.

Bouncers are also taught to deal with rowdy customers in camera surveillance areas, he added.

'It's a precaution. We don't want any unfounded allegations to be used against us later on,' he explained.

Martial arts skills are not compulsory, since they are only useful for self-defence.

What's required is experience. They should be ex-police officers, ex-army regulars, or those who have at least received Civil Defence training during their National Service.

Said Mr Singh: 'We never want them to use force but will restrain a person if he has caused injury, or has molested a person, until the police arrive.'

And when the going gets hot, bouncers have to remain cool.

A club bouncer of eight years, MrJeganathan Suppiah, 32, said he has had all sorts of vulgarities thrown at him.

But when push comes to shove, he takes a deep breath and takes it all in.

The security consultant at St James, who is on the floor supervising other bouncers on most nights, said: 'It comes with the job. We don't want to offend anyone.'

Indeed, no one needs a thug for protection or a security staff who is a ticking time-bomb.

As lawyer Sunil Sudheesan from KhattarWong puts it, 'a bouncer may take steps to restrain the patron, not further aggravate the situation.'

Mr Singh agrees.

'You can't just wear a black shirt and call yourself a bouncer,' he said.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Jan 31, 2008.

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