PUBLISHED ONFebruary 05, 2025 3:12 AMByBhavya RawatWith a series of knife attacks in Singapore over the past few months, public safety has once again come into focus.
Just last month, a 59-year-old vendor at a coffeeshop in Bedok allegedly attacked a customer with a bread knife on Jan 6.
The attacker was subsequently arrested for his suspected involvement in a case of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, reported The Straits Times.
On Dec 10, 2024, a 42-year-old man stabbed two people at a hardware store at Hougang following an argument. This resulted in the death of a 34-year-old woman. The man was later charged with murder.
Another knife attack, which occurred at St Joseph's Church on Nov 9 last year, was also in the media spotlight.
Basnayake Keith Spencer, 37, suddenly stabbed Catholic priest Reverend Christopher Lee with a foldable knife after approaching him during communion. He was subsequently arrested.
Such incidents have led to increased concerns regarding safety among members of the public.
To gain a better understanding on the matter, AsiaOne polled some 1,226 Singapore-based readers on their sentiments regarding public safety in Singapore between Dec 2 and Dec 5 last year.
According to the survey results, 85 per cent of respondents feel that it is safe to walk around their neighbourhood at night.
This is a slight dip of about two percentage points as compared to a previous poll done by AsiaOne in April 2022, where 87 per cent of respondents indicated that they feel safe to walk around their neighbourhood at night.
Similar to the previous poll, female respondents were less likely than their male counterparts to say that they feel safe walking around their neighbourhood at night.
82 per cent of female respondents felt safe enough to walk around in their neighbourhood at night, two percentage points lower than that in April 2022.
When asked to rate the safety of public spaces, respondents indicated that public parks, dining places and pubs were less safe as compared to shopping malls, workplaces, places of worship, schools and public transport.
On average, female respondents scored both public parks and dining places notably lower than males.
Despite recent incidents of violent crimes in Singapore, concern over such offences are moderate according to survey findings.
When asked to select up to three crimes they were most concerned about from a list, the majority of respondents chose scams and cybercrimes (65 per cent), followed by online harm (31 per cent).
One in five chose violent crime, such as assault, murder, rape, kidnapping and use of firearms.
Back in January, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said in Parliament that the number of violent crimes involving knives was "comparable to the number of cases in the preceding three years".
As of November 2024, there were 129 cases of murder, attempted murder, robbery, rioting and serious hurt involving knives in 2024, she explained, adding that between 2021 and 2023, there was an average of 133 cases a year.
Sun also announced then that flick knives and knuckledusters will be added to the list of six regulated weapons when the Guns, Explosives and Weapons Control Act is operationalised in the first half of 2025.
This is to safeguard public safety following several knife attacks in 2024, she added.
Edmund Chua, who heads AsiaOne's consumer insights and analytics group, said that despite the overall decrease in the public's perception of safety, Singapore continues to score highly for the sense of personal security.
About 70 to 75 per cent of people in most developed countries feel safe walking around their neighbourhoods at night according to a study done by global analytics firm Gallup, he explained.
"Given the rise in online activity, it is not surprising that scams and online harm are now the crimes which Singaporeans are most likely to be concerned about."
Chua added that according to Gallup's study, people's sense of personal safety is correlated with the number of public institutions and locale they feel confident in.
"Going ahead, the next frontier of collaboration will be between public institutions, online platforms, telcos, and private companies to foster the public's sense of security on the online space," he said.
At AsiaOne, communications is both an art and a science. We conduct polls 24/7 to understand our users' perception and opinions towards social issues, as well as their consumer preferences.
Want more insights on Singaporean's attitudes and perceptions towards social issues? Get in touch! Contact us at sales@asiaone.com to explore opportunities to undertake meaningful research.
bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com
