ON FRIDAY Jan 19 at around 8.20pm, I witnessed a person taking a
free ride on an SBS bus - SBS 7401G.
This person was then reported to the police by the bus driver,
after he stopped the bus along the roadside near Pasir Panjang
Police Post.
The driver got off and went to get the police. He then took the
officer up to the second level of the bus to catch the person who
had not paid his fare.
The officer questioned the person, and he admitted that he had not
paid, claiming that he did not have the money to do so.
The policeman asked him to open his belongings. After searching and
talking to him for around five minutes, the policeman took the
non-paying passenger down the aisle.
As they went downstairs, another passenger grumbled that he was
short on time and asked that the bus driver depart soon.
But the bus driver reacted negatively and challenged this second
passenger, which resulted in the second passenger grumbling that
the bus driver should not have called the police and wasted the
other passengers' time.
The policeman then yelled up from first level in Mandarin at the
second passenger, 'Uncle, this is the police conducting work.
Please cooperate.'
The bus driver then gloated in Hokkien: 'Got problem, talk to the
policeman.'
After this, the policeman and the bus driver got off the bus and
went to the police post. Not knowing how long they would be, quite
a few passengers got off the bus and trekked to the nearest
bus-stop. After another five minutes or so, the bus driver got back
in and drove off.
My complaint to the police is this: When the non-paying passenger
admitted his guilt, the police should have taken him to the police
post and not searched his belongings on the bus. As the bus was in
the middle of the road, it was a danger to all the passengers on
board, who were waiting for the incident to end quickly.
Also, when the 'uncle' complained, the words used by the policeman
were maybe polite, but the tone was clearly wrong. It seemed that
he was trying to impress the crowd that he was the almighty
policeman and all should fear his power. He was not trying to
defuse the situation, but to frighten the aggrieved passenger into
submission.
Lastly, when the policeman, the non-paying passenger and bus driver
got off the bus, they should have let the passengers know how long
they had to wait.
My complaint to SBS is this: There is a better way to deal with
these sorts of passengers. Reporting to the police should only be
the last resort.
How safe is it to stop a bus in the middle of the road to go and
get the police? For such a minor case, it is not worth risking the
lives of the passengers on board.
When the second passenger complained, the driver was not at all
polite. In fact, it seemed he had had a rather bad day. Things
could have been settled quite peacefully if only he had smiled and
eaten a little humble pie.
And then there was the fact that the driver not once informed the
passengers how long they needed to wait.
I hope that both the police and SBS learn from the incident and
improve their public relations.
After all, it takes only one person on the ground to destroy the
entire image of the fleet.
Wil Ng Chin Wee
