There will be one automated external defibrillator
(AED) for every two Housing Board blocks islandwide by 2019, up
from about 460 in eight constituencies now.
Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee
revealed this on Friday (March 3), referring to efforts in
strengthening partnership between the Home Team and community.
He was responding to MP Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok),
who asked about community partnership in the fight against crime,
corruption and terrorism.
Mr Lee added that about 2,000 residents have been
trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and AED skills under
the Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) Save-a-Life
initiative.
This aims to have trained community responders who can
provide initial response to cardiac arrest cases outside
hospitals.
"In the coming years, we hope to train more than 24,000
residents, or about 300 residents per constituency," he said.
In response to MP Desmond Choo (Tampines GRC), who
highlighted the need for Home Team departments to work together, Mr
Lee said the authorities are co-locating various departments'
operation centres.
By the end of this year, he added, officers from the
police, Central Narcotics Bureau, SCDF and Immigration and
Checkpoints Authority will "sit side-by-side at the Police
Operations Command Centre".
This enables "faster communication and information
sharing, (enhancing) coordination of ground responses to
incidents", he said.
Mr Lee added that the authorities are ramping up the
use of technology, including using unmanned aerial vehicles or
drones, in situations such as the recent fire in Tuas. After the
fire was extinguished, a drone was used to locate hot spots in the
large incident site, which were otherwise out of sight from
firefighters.
ST