Monday, February 19, 2018

Cannot build trust with only fancy posters.


There are a few pretty posters around Singapore on the police force. The posters look good and put the Police Officers in a good light. There are also several advertisements on TV on this used for recruitment.

However, today with social media, it seems futile to have a beautiful image when people feel that the reality is much different.

Children handcuffed by police at Katong

CIVIL ACTIVISTS ARRESTED & HARASSED FOR SILENT PROTEST OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Elderly woman arrested and handcuffed by police after reporting a lost pawn shop ticket


And the list goes on.

I personally have experienced trying to report a lost bicycle, but was dissuaded as the officer keeps asking me if I've misplaced it. I told him I want to file it, and he replied that many bicycles go missing and they don't have enough resources to find my bicycle.

The same goes for my stolen car (more than once), and things stolen off my motorcycle.

When someone broke into my house at Oei Tiong Ham Park (opposite Holland Village), I called the police who took more than 6 hours to respond, (Police from Pasir Ris came) And their excuse, they lack resources.

I used to have many friends in the police force as I was part of the Military Police. Sadly, many of them left to join Cisco where they wear the same uniform and have definite working hours and good benefits, unlike the Police force where education and qualification matters most. (If you are not a scholar, there is a glass ceiling)

With lack of trust, and the impression that the police works for the rich and connected, it is hard to just have fancy posters and expect people to join the Police. Try winning back trust by doing the right thing and have common sense.

-- Robin Low

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Don't be too concerned over videos on Facebook




To get eyeballs, many News sites will "steal" videos and repost it as their News when something similar happens.

This usually makes a lot of people over react when they see something that happened a few years ago. Sometimes an event occurred elsewhere or it may be even staged, but it can be worded in such a way that it creates a different context and create fear and anger.

In 2018, What Now posted this video on their Facebook page and talking about it like it just happened, getting a lot of anger and outrage. However, I did find the same video on YouTube 4 years ago.

This is not an isolated incident. Many other Facebook pages and other news sites often post other videos out of context to create more clicks from the outrage. One main reason is because such videos and News create a reaction which makes you click on them, and drives traffic which brings them revenue.

So before you get outraged and share that news or video, you can easily search for the news online to see if it really happened or if it happened elsewhere or long ago, before you share the news. You should not share the fake news and encourage such behaviors.

-- Robin Low