The Dec 8 riot in Little India was quelled within hours. By 6.45am the next day, roads where the violence – the worst in Singapore in more than 40 years – broke out were open to traffic. A national inquiry was convened almost immediately, and cooling measures such as a ban on public consumption and sale of alcohol were introduced. The Committee of Inquiry has now submitted its report, and eight recommendations on how to prevent a repeat of the incident have been accepted by the Government and debated in Parliament. Yet even as the dust settles, Insight’s Hoe Pei Shan, Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh and Walter Sim ask: Are there issues that linger?

Are there enough police officers?

THAT is a question that has kept coming up in the seven months since the Dec 8 riot.

The issue came to the fore at the Committee of Inquiry (COI) hearings earlier this year, after Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee told the committee that he would need 1,000 more officers.

… There is, however, no magic number when it comes to the strength of a police force, said security expert Kumar Ramakrishna, head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security here. “Too many and accusations of ‘police state’ may be heard. Too few… and public anxiety may spike.”