Corpse in sea: Police sorry for distress caused

POLICE would like to convey our sincere apologies to Mrs Susan Carpenter ('Why did it take police an hour to attend to corpse?'; ST, March 1) for the distress caused to her and her family and also to other members of the public on the day of the incident. We would also like to express our deepest regrets to the family of the deceased.

We have looked into Mrs Carpenter's feedback. Police received her call at about 11.05am. While the site comes under the jurisdiction of Bedok South Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC), its patrol resources were all tied up and officers from the neighbouring Changi NPC were despatched.

This resulted in a slight delay and officers eventually arrived at Carpark E2 near the East Coast Park Lagoon at about 11.40am. The officers could not locate the site of the incident and while trying to contact Mrs Carpenter for the exact location, were signalled by some members of the public about 400m away. Our officers then drove the patrol car to the carpark (E1) nearest to the scene and attended to the incident.

We would like to assure Mrs Carpenter that the police take all reports seriously and would respond to any request for assistance as soon as possible. We are looking into the handling of this incident with a view to improving our service.

We thank Mrs Carpenter for her public-spiritedness and feedback.

Audrey Ang (Ms)
Assistant Director (Media Relations)
Singapore Police Force