SINGAPORE: From Oct 1, the current police emergency SMS sender ID “71999” will be discontinued and changed to “70999”, as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) works to standardise the sender IDs used by different departments in the Home Team.
The move will also make it easier to recognise and remember SMSes from the Home Team, and thus help protect the public against scammers who impersonate Home Team officers, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in a press release on Friday (Sep 27).
For instance, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) uses the SMS sender ID “70995” as part of its 995 emergency call service.
There are seven departments in the Home Team, including the SPF and the SCDF.
The police emergency SMS service started in 2016 as part of Singapore’s SGSecure movement. It enables people who require police assistance in emergency situations where it is unsafe to have phone conversations, or individuals who are deaf, mute or have a speech impairment, to contact the police.
SPF noted that since Jul 1, Singapore government agencies have been using a single SMS sender ID – gov.sg – for one-way communication with the public. However, emergency services such as the police emergency SMS require two-way communications.
In non-emergency situations, members of the public are advised to send information via i-Witness or use the e-services available on the SPF website or Police@SG app to lodge a police report, said SPF.
