ABSTRACT
The sense of duty of the port police comes largely from and feeds into protecting vital global trade and the law abiding port business community – these are the familiar Others whom they protect and police, and through whom they define their Self. An operational HWP officer explained that as a cop you do not necessarily have to know that much about trade and port economics; however, it is good to have a sense of what is going on:
We exist by the grace [of transport and tourism in the port]. This [port police] has merely 600 people and the [normal] police has 6,000. Despite that, the port police is so big, because [of] the PORT! Port, economy, Ministry of Economic Affairs . . . I don’t know how many millions this port makes, and, as a port police officer, we’re responsible for it.
