IT IS good that the police are taking a serious view of their officers' wrong assessment of the Paterson Road oil spill ("Officers erred in assessment of oil spill: Police"; last Saturday).
Nevertheless, I hope they do not go overboard in castigating the officers, who did not have the expertise or experience to make the right assessment in this case.
It is easy for us to criticise them in hindsight, but unless there is a standard operating procedure that indicates clearly the actions to be taken, it is unreasonable to expect our civil servants to always know the right thing to do.
Also, there were no serious long-term consequences arising from the wrong assessment.
Punishing the officers for an oversight that did not result from any neglect of duty or deviant behaviour would send the wrong message to the rest of the police force, instead of encouraging them to learn from mistakes.
The police should instead focus more on tapping this "teachable moment", and update their standard operating procedures and training.
Alex Teo Boon Keng
Nevertheless, I hope they do not go overboard in castigating the officers, who did not have the expertise or experience to make the right assessment in this case.
It is easy for us to criticise them in hindsight, but unless there is a standard operating procedure that indicates clearly the actions to be taken, it is unreasonable to expect our civil servants to always know the right thing to do.
Also, there were no serious long-term consequences arising from the wrong assessment.
Punishing the officers for an oversight that did not result from any neglect of duty or deviant behaviour would send the wrong message to the rest of the police force, instead of encouraging them to learn from mistakes.
The police should instead focus more on tapping this "teachable moment", and update their standard operating procedures and training.
Alex Teo Boon Keng
