THE police is the latest organisation to join the YouTube bandwagon - it has uploaded three videos, in nine parts, onto the video-sharing website.

The decision to upload the videos on YouTube is part of a community outreach move by the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

Director of planning and organisation Senior Assistant Commissioner Ang Hak Seng revealed this to journalists during the Police Workplan Seminar held yesterday at the Grassroots Club in Ang Mo Kio.

The three videos, ranging from eight to 13 minutes each, come six months after a promotional video by theMedia Development Agency became a hit on YouTube, garnering over 200,000 views.

One video, titled Confessions, is split into three parts, and shows four ex-youth offenders telling viewers that crime does not pay.

Another four-part video, You Could Be My Victim, highlights crime prevention measures like not leaving valuables unattended in public places.

The last one, Be Alert Against Terrorism, is split into two parts and teaches the public to identify the tell-tale signs of explosives.

The three videos, made between 2006 and last year, are just a start, said Assistant Superintendent Jenny Sim, 30, from the police community involvement division.

Though the videos had earlier been shown at places like schools and grassroots events, uploading them onto YouTube would help to reach a larger audience, she said. The most popular video, part one of Confession, had over 100 views yesterday, one week after it was uploaded.

Technology would be the next frontier of community engagement for the police, as seen in a simulated video screened at the seminar, in which the police successfully foils a terrorist attack on the Youth Olympics Games and catches the suspect with help from the community.

The video shows a member of a Facebook group "Cyber Patrol" alerting the police to a suspicious character via e-mail.

Subsequently, another member of the public takes a picture of the suspect on the run with his mobile phone and sends it to the police, enabling a patrol car to arrive quickly and arrest him.

Among other community outreach measures unveiled at the seminar yesterday was the police's emergency SMS helpline.

The service, a joint initiative between SPF and the National Council of Social Service, enables registered hearing or
speech-impaired users to communicate with the police during emergencies via text messages.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, the guest-of-honour at the event, also praised officers for remaining committed to the mission of looking for escaped terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari.

sandrea@sph.com.sg

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