TOC’s response to SPF’s post on publication of false allegations

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.

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.