Police handling of rape cases in Singapore : Skills Upgrading Needed.
http://www.todayonline.com/Print/Singapore/EDC091120-0000099/Victim-reveals-more-of-ordeal-to-female-officer
(reproduced at the end of this post too. I hope that she will be strong, know that none of this is her fault, and that many people care about her and will support her all the way)
(If you are, or know the victim of a sexual/domestic violence crime , and wish to speak anonymously to a female counsellor before deciding whether or not to report to the police, or to simply get help, the AWARE Helpline is open Monday to Friday from 3pm to 9.30pm. Call 1800 774 5935. Aware also has a BeFriender service for a female volunteer to accompany you to make reports, see doctors etc. Aware also has face-to-face private counselling with female professional counsellors. All services are free. Aware depends on the generous financial donations from the public who support our work. http://www.aware.org.sg/direct-services/helpline/ Lesbian/Gay/Bi – Affirmative )
She’s just victimised over and over;
first by the perpertrators,
then by the police
(insensitive on their part, why did the victim have to request to speak privately to a female officer when it was the job of the officers to help her feel safe? I would even say that by having the male officers interogate the victims, they are creating so much more distressed and should be disciplied for their behavior. This reveals systematic lack of appropriate training for for the force as a whole),
then the media
( as one FB comment goes: “There were 3 officers at the scene, one of whom was a female. The victim didn’t want to reveal the details to the female officer in the presence of the the male officers and requested to speak with the female officer alone. It is quite normal for rape victims to downplay the shame by referring to the incident as molest. This piece of non-news has no purpose – either the reporter doesn’t know the subject matter or it’s a report for the sake of reporting on this particular court case.” )
and then by lowlife like this (before you leave a comment for my post, I hope you think about whether you are one of these lowlife, and if you are, please go somewhere else)
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2572165&page=5
who make me truly hope that hell exists.
This may not be the most ideal recommendations on how rape cases should be handled, but it’s the best I could find during the 15 min I had to write this. (Appreciate if you fwd me links to better sites/guidelines if you know of them) I was just comparing the recommendations with the TODAY article (reproduced below). Maybe all these were done, just not fully reported. Or maybe the investigations were done exactly as reported, but the Singapore system of having male officers badger her is better. You decide.
First Responder Duties
As with any other violent crime, the first officer on scene must ensure the victim receives medical attention. Paramedics must bring the victim to a hospital for medical care and a physical examination to establish the crime of rape or sexual assault. Investigators will take the victim’s garments as evidence, so officers should bring a change of clothes for the victim to the hospital whenever possible. The time to plan for this is early in the interaction. Many victims will have an advocate or friend with them to call on their behalf. Give this person the assignment of getting a change of clothing for the victim. Maintaining the chain of evidence is crucial, and a police officer, preferably a female officer, should accompany the victim in the ambulance.In addition to following normal procedures in protecting primary and secondary crime scenes, one of the first responders (preferably a female officer) should conduct a preliminary interview with the victim in private to determine if she knows or can identify the person who raped her. The officer should obtain a physical description of the rapist and ask the victim to explain what happened. The investigator, a rape counselor, or another care provider will conduct a detailed follow-up interview in a setting most comfortable to the victim.
One thing we lack here in Singapore is Rape Crisis Center. I’m sure we have people with the appropriate expertise in Singapore to set up such a centre. I hope it gets set up. If anyone is interested, I’ll be willing to contribute in whatever way I can.
The UK Rape Crisis website has some great material & I’m just highlighting some here :
Reporting Rape: http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/reportingrape.html
Giving Support: http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/givingsupport.html
And I was SO SO SO impressed by this page ….. the sensitivity shown : http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/hideyourtracks.html
(If you are, or know the victim of a sexual/domestic violence crime , and wish to speak anonymously to a female counsellor before deciding whether or not to report to the police, or to simply get help, the AWARE Helpline is open Monday to Friday from 3pm to 9.30pm. Call 1800 774 5935. Aware also has a BeFriender service for a female volunteer to accompany you to make reports, see doctors etc. Aware also has face-to-face private counselling with female professional counsellors. All services are free. Aware depends on the generous financial donations from the public who support our work. http://www.aware.org.sg/direct-services/helpline/ Lesbian/Gay/Bi – Affirmative)
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But the 17-year-old student later revealed privately to a female police officer details about the alleged rape that took place on Boxing Day last year.
The girl was still wearing the clothes from the previous night when officers first visited her, with smudged make-up on her face and her eyes puffy, Station Inspector Kim Lai Kuan of Jurong Police Division told the court.
According to her, the girl also appeared moody and in a daze.
Five young men aged between 17 to 20 are in the dock for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting the girl in a flat in Woodlands between 4am and 6am on Dec 26 last year.
Hours after the alleged attack, her boyfriend called the police, saying his girlfriend had been “molested” by a group of men in a van.
She had confided in him in an online chat but threatened to kill herself if he called the police, the court heard.
After SI Kim arrived at the flat with her two colleagues, SI Mohamed Azmi Chomil and Sergeant Mohammad Ridzuan Abdul Samad, they interviewed the girl in the living room.
The girl, now 18, repeated the story of being molested in a van.
When pressed by SI Mohamed Azmi for a description of the van, she was not “forthcoming” and requested to speak to SI Kim in private.
In her bedroom, she recounted to SI Kim the ordeal of how she had too much to drink in a Woodlands apartment and was raped by five men, one of whom was a friend of hers.
The case was later referred to the Serious Sexual Crimes branch of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The court was not told why the girl had first claimed to be molested in a van. She is likely to give evidence behind closed doors next week.
(If you are, or know the victim of a sexual/domestic violence crime , and wish to speak anonymously to a female counsellor before deciding whether or not to report to the police, or to simply get help, the AWARE Helpline is open Monday to Friday from 3pm to 9.30pm. Call 1800 774 5935. Aware also has a BeFriender service for a female volunteer to accompany you to make reports, see doctors etc. Aware also has face-to-face private counselling with female professional counsellors. All services are free. Aware depends on the generous financial donations from the public who support our work. http://www.aware.org.sg/direct-services/helpline/ Lesbian/Gay/Bi – Affirmative)
Wanted : Female police officers
I went to the police station today to seek advice (sorry, not at a liberty to say for what and for whom). This is a small story about my experience.
I went during lunch hour. Even though there were only 2 police officers on duty, there was no crowd and I did not have to wait. I sat down on one side of the counter. The other police officer was attending to someone else seated on the other side — 1 meter away. I could hear what they were saying. I felt uncomfortable having to talk about my case out in the open — there was no privacy or confidentiality at all.
The officer attending to me was very nice and helpful, within the constraints of what he could do. I told him I was seeking advice as I didn’t know whether this case was reportable and under what charges. I also told him that I was uncomfortable going into detail at this early stage — and in such an open space. He was very understanding, and asked the appropriate questions for him to know how to help, while giving me sufficient space and respect. Then he advised me to lodge a report formally, and under what charges.
He asked if I would feel more comfortable speaking to a female officer. I was quite impressed that he made such a suggestion, without me having to bring that request up. When I said that I would prefer a female officer, he picked up the phone to call for one. I think he made at least 10 phone calls. And still couldn’t find an available female officer — they were all either on call, or off duty.
He was most apologetic, and explained that he had tried calling 2 divisions and still could not locate a female officer. He asked if I wanted to lodge a report online. I offered to come back on Monday, because given the complexities of the case, I wanted to have the advice and assistance of an officer.
He then said that the system was such that he wouldn’t be on duty on Monday, and didn’t know which female office would be on duty and would be able to attend to me. In another words, I couldn’t make an appointment. He said the best thing for me to do was to lodge a report online, specifying that I wished to speak to a female officer, and then wait for this officer to liase with me. I thanked him and left.
And went to my computer to write this post = )
I wonder how they would have handled an emergency case. Mine wasn’t.
It’s fair to accuse me of working from the ivory tower thus far. Most of my experience come from research, or from the stories of my social worker , cousellor, and advocacy work friends. Apart from my own life experiences, I have very little experience of actually going through the system.
So it was a learning experience for me today. I’m quite sure those of you who unfortunately have had to go these experiences, whether for yourself, your loved one, or your client, might find it familiar. I’ve certainly heard stories before. So I’m just sharing my experience.
If you’ll like to share your experience, you are very welcomed to put them in the comments. Hopefully if more people spoke up, there would be sufficient pressure and motivation for the different public entities in our country to make improvements. I think over the decades, we’ve come very far. But there’s always going to be room for improvement, which depends on everyone’s contributions — through suggestions and feedback, or through doing the hardwork of making the improvements happen. Which may be a good thing — allows people to keep their jobs and not get retrenched.
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That very afternoon a female officer contacts me, much sooner than expected. When I went to the station to meet her, she was very helpful and professional. This was despite being swamped with cases and a never ending stream of incomming calls. I think her offers to help went beyond the basic call of duty. We do have good people around = ) We just need more of them. Many more.
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For more reading, refer to:
Sexual Assault Training of Law Enforcement Officers
Results of a Statewide Survey
Authors: Linda M. Kinney ab; Eric J. Bruns bc; Patrick Bradley d; Joyce Dantzler e; Mark D. Weist
For more reading, refer to:
Sexual Assault Training of Law Enforcement Officers
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