ABSTRACT
Singapore consists of the main island of Singapore and some 63 offshore islands. The main island is about 42 kilometres in length, 23 kilometres in breadth and 584.8 square kilometres in area. It has a coastline of approximately 150.5 kilometres long. The total area, including the offshore islands, is about 647.5 square kilometres (Ministry of Information and the Arts, 1997). As a city-state, Singapore has a negligible rural sector as only 10.8 square kilometres are farm holding areas (licensed farms). The small size of Singapore and its high degree of urbanisation are cited as being advantageous for the police in its enforcement duties, as according to Quah (1994), the limited area of 28.6 square kilometres of forests and relative absence of hilly terrain have reduced considerably the number of hiding places for criminals. This factor, however, has made detection and apprehension of criminals particularly difficult, as the criminals tend to escape to the north to Malaysia by car, or to the south to Indonesia and surrounding islands by boat. The effectiveness of the still maturing Aseanapol, the region’s police co-operation body, has not been adequately evaluated.
