BURIED under several floors of concrete in an undisclosed
location is a cold room accessible only after many layers of
security checks.
Wired up with screens, computers and telephones, this is where
all 999 emergency calls are routed to. And it is where the police
get wind of any outbreak of misdeeds across the island.
It is where their ears are.
Sitting hunched over one of the bright consoles in the
low-ceilinged Combined Operations Room one recent morning was Staff
Sergeant Norlaila Yunos, 33.
It was after 8am and she had started her shift just moments
before. She threw on a jacket to beat the room's Arctic
temperature, positioned a black set of Sennheiser headphones on her
head and gave the volume on the headset a tweak.
She was ready for action.
Before her was a computer monitor which displayed information on
the calls received. Her fingers were poised over a keyboard, ready
to enter information for relay to the various police units and the
Singapore Civil Defence Force.
The telephone squatted nearby, waiting for the first call, which
came not long after.
'Police emergency, good morning,' Staff Sgt Norlaila
chirped.
Silence.
She repeated her greeting a few more times and then hung up on
the nuisance caller.
Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits
Times.
