Update as of April 14 on SPF’S Facebook Page:
POLICE DO NOT CONDUCT CHECKS AT RESIDENTIAL UNITS TO ENFORCE ELEVATED SAFE DISTANCING MEASURES
On 11 April 2020, the Police received a call from a man for Police assistance for a family dispute, and responded at about 9.55 pm to the case at a residential unit located at Jurong West Avenue 1.
During the engagement, the Police officers discovered that there was a gathering of family members, in particular two who were not from the household living in that residential unit. These two were the man who had called for Police assistance, and his wife. (The family living there included the man’s mother, his uncle and other family members with whom the mother lives.) The Police officers therefore issued a warning to the couple who was not residing there and was not there for an essential purpose, for not complying with the elevated safe distancing measures under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020.
The Police are also aware of messages circulating via text messaging platforms that give the false impression that the Police are proactively conducting checks at residential units to enforce the elevated safe distancing measures. This is not true. The Police urge the public not to spread unsubstantiated information which may cause public alarm.
The Police do not proactively conduct checks at residential units specifically to enforce these measures. Nonetheless, if the Police come across anyone flouting elevated safe distancing measures when attending to other types of incident at residential units reported by the public, such as the case of family dispute mentioned above, the Police will take enforcement action.
With more strict circuit breaker measures in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19, social distancing must be observed even among family members not living at the same place.
This was initially discouraged with a warning letter but the penalty for the first offence was increased to S$300 on Sunday (April 12).
Only a day earlier, a man had been issued a warning letter while on a visit to his parents in Jurong West. A report by mothership.com on April 13 had a photo of the warning letter that was issued by the police. The original post featuring the image, however, has been taken down.
The individual had violated Regulation 6 of the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020. The regulation, which prohibits social gatherings, states that a person must not meet another individual not living in the same place of residence for any social purpose.
On Sunday (April 12), a Twitter user claiming to be the individual’s brother claimed that his brother had visited him and his parents at home, as he was married and no longer lived with them. When the police, who were conducting checks, knocked on the door, the brother was the one who answered. The police noticed that there were a few individuals in the living area. They then asked the brother for his Identity Card, which showed that he lived with his wife some place else.
Although the police let him go with a warning, they stressed that should the same thing happen again, there would be no more warning. Since then, however, the penalty for the first offence is no longer a warning. The offender’s particulars will be taken down and he will face a S$300 fine straight away.
The penalty was increased because too many people were not heeding appeals to practice social distancing and there had been a spike in Covid-19 cases.
https://twitter.com/__Fitch__/status/1249354781874782209
https://twitter.com/__Fitch__/status/1249354783745437696
https://twitter.com/__Fitch__/status/1249354785955799040
The circuit breaker measures, under which people must stay home as much as possible, commenced on Tuesday (April 7) and are set to last for at least a month. /TISG