After the flames in Little India: Response time

During the 24-day hearing, a large portion of the questions were about the response to the Dec 8 Little India riot.

KEY PEOPLE

Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Lu Yeow Lim, DAC David Scott Arul, Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Jonathan Tang, Lieutenant (Lt) Tiffany Neo, Sergeant (Sgt) Fadli Shaifuddin Mohamed Sani

KEY POINT: WHY HESITATE?

The Committee of Inquiry (COI) quizzed DAC Lu on the way police responded.

Much was made of how he had remained with a group of eight officers at the junction of Hampshire Road and Race Course Road for 30 minutes.

And rather than charge at rioters when they had shields, DAC Lu and his men held the ground, trying to contain the riot until the Special Operations Command (SOC) troopers arrived.

Said committee member and former police commissioner Tee Tua Ba: "For half an hour, you were there holding the line. You have somehow made it worse by not taking any action."

But DAC Lu defended himself, saying that his objective was to contain the riot by not letting it escalate.

Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee also stood by his men when he testified before the committee on Tuesday.

He emphasised that on the night of the riot, police officers had shown restraint rather than attacking and firing at the crowd, which might have made the situation worse.

Mr Ng also said that officers had been trained not to fire a warning shot unless it would put an end to violence, or it would signal to the crowd that the police were about to use lethal force.

KEY POINT: MISCOMMUNICATION

On the night of the riot, the SOC troop PTT KA was on patrol at City Hall when it got activated at 10.04pm. But it was nearly 45 minutes before they arrived in Little India and formed up.

This came down to miscommunication, which led to the four-vehicle convoy getting caught in heavy traffic and having to make two U-turns. Without the diversions, the SOC might have saved close to 20 minutes.

SOC commander DAC Scott Arul detailed how the troops formed up, which had an intimidating effect on the rioters.

As they dispersed the crowds, police officers followed behind them, arresting those who failed to disperse.

But committee chairman G. Pannir Selvam pointed out that by the time the SOC formed up at 11pm, most of the rioters had started to disperse.

He said: "We don't have the impression that (the SOC) is ineffective.

"The only problem was, due to the circumstances of the day, you didn't come earlier."

FLASHPOINT

On waiting almost 30 minutes for the SOC, DAC Lu said: "It was not a case where I was drinking coffee at that junction. I was gathering info about my people, trying to get the operations room, trying to estimate the number of rioters and their intent, and was in contact with the combined operations room to (find out about) the SOC troops."

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