We refer to the Singapore Police Force (SPF)'s post, "FALSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST POLICE PUBLISHED BY THE ONLINE CITIZEN" published on its Facebook page on 18 March 2017, 10.11pm.
SPF wrote:
The Police are aware of the article “80-year-old wheelchair bound man accused of motorcycle theft by Singapore Police” and the allegations against the Police officers on the “The Online Citizen” website.
The Police would like to clarify that the allegations against the Police officers in the article are unfounded. On 17 January 2017, the Police officers had responded to a case of motor vehicle theft at Mayflower Terrace. They interviewed a wheelchair bound man at his home as part of the investigations. He was never accused of being involved in any motor vehicle theft, nor was he asked to provide a statement at the Police station.
The Police urge the public to refrain from circulating unsubstantiated reports. While we will investigate all allegations of misconduct, we will also not hesitate to take action against persons who deliberately make false allegations.
The Online Citizen thanks the SPF for clarifying on the matter from its side of view.
We note, however, that we had on 17 January on the date of the incident, written to them seeking for SPF's response to the account made by Ms Choo on what her father experienced. The SPF did not reply even after two months since the date of our query.
Query sent to SPF on 17 January on the date of the incident
And yes, there was an automated message stating that the query was received by SPF.
Had we received a reply, we would have been more than happy to include that in our article.
We note also that the account of what happened came from Ms Choo, the daughter of the affected elderly. There was no additional comments or details added to their version of the story.
SPF's reply also proves that TOC did not conjure the story out of thin air. The account as depicted in the article can only come from people involved in the incident.
In all our articles, TOC seeks to give all sides a chance to speak. It is up to those we reach out to respond. We would like to take this opportunity to urge the SPF to reply to future similar queries in future so as to present a fairer story on any public interest matter.
