Working in the Police Force is often regarded as a stable and ‘iron rice bowl’ career in Singapore, and for good reason.
You practically won’t be fired unless you massively underperform or commit a crime. Your total annual bonuses would also typically amount to at least a month (excluding the 13th-month bonus), regardless of how bad Singapore’s economy is.
Despite this financial stability, I choose to resign after spending almost 11 years in the Police Force. Before going into my reasons, let me first briefly share what I did during those 11 years.
My 11 years in the Police Force
Unlike most regulars who sign on in their 20s, my association with the Police Force started way earlier, at the age of 16, right after my ‘O’ levels. You see, before my enrolment into Polytechnic, I received a recruitment letter that offered sponsorship for my diploma studies.
Given that I always had an aspiration of becoming a Police officer, taking up the sponsorship was sort of a no-brainer for me. Not only were my diploma studies fully paid for, I also received a monthly allowance of $1,000 and an additional $1,200 bonus should I pass all modules in a given semester. Of course, the ‘downside’ to the sponsorship was the 5-year bond that came with it.
I officially enlisted into the Police Force on a rather interesting date: September 11th, 2012. After 7 months of training, I was posted to Marina Bay Neighbourhood Police Centre (MB NPC), where I worked at for pretty much the next 10 years of my life.
12-hour shifts as a frontliner
Like all new regular officers fresh out of training, I was posted to MB NPC as a Ground Response Force (GRF) officer. Put simply, GRF officers are the uniformed officers you see attending to 999 calls and patrolling in your neighbourhoods.
I think my first 3 years as a GRF officer really matured me a lot as a young individual in his early 20s. This was mostly due to the experience of interacting with a myriad of individuals across various types of incidents and cases. I also got to see a side of Singapore that not many would have the chance to, for better or worse.
If you are curious as to what the working hours are like, think of it as a 4-day cycle:
- 1st day – 12-hour day shift
- 2nd day – 12-hour night shift which ends on the morning of the 3rd day
- 3rd day – Off after the night shift
- 4th day – Off day
The off on the 4th day could sometimes be used for training purposes (which means it’s still an official working day) or you might also be called back for ad-hoc security deployments or other one-off major events like the F1 Grand Prix, National Day or Year-end countdown etc.
Additionally, you would also likely work more than 12 hours per shift as you would have to report earlier to prepare for the shift and end work later after wrapping up the necessary paperwork and debriefing after the shift.
At times your shift might also extend and end way later due to last-minute calls or incidents. Hence depending on your luck, a typical working day can last anywhere from 14 hours (for a good shift) to however long it requires to wrap up your shift properly.
While the shift cycle might seem demanding to some, I felt that my first 3 years as a GRF officer gave me the most sense of purpose and fulfilment. This was perhaps due to the impact that I felt I could deliver from my interactions with the public and also the amount of personal growth I experienced along the way.
The mini career break
Despite growing as an individual and having a sense of purpose, things got a bit monotonous and mundane in my 3rd year. This was also perhaps the point where I felt that my personal growth had sort of plateaued in a way.
Thus, I started looking at what other departments in the Police Force I could be transferred to. It was here that the opportunity to apply for a full-time degree sponsorship came up.
At that time, I thought it was another no-brainer decision as not only could I get a degree while being paid, it was also an opportunity to accelerate my career and become a senior officer. Of course, the degree sponsorship came with another 4-year bond upon graduation.
Long story short, my application was a success and I spent the next 3 years pursuing my bachelor’s degree. And let me tell you those 3 years were perhaps the greatest period of my working adult life as I had the responsibilities of a student but was still paid my full monthly salary + bonuses. While I had to return to work for a proportion of my semester break, I think those were just a mere negative consequence of the luxury of being a paid student.
Those 3 years pursuing my bachelor’s degree also kind of triggered a mindset shift in the way I looked at life. I started thinking more about what I wanted to do in life and the things that provide the most amount of fulfilment.
If you asked me what caused this thinking, I honestly do not have an answer for it. Perhaps it’s just down to maturing more and thinking about what really matters in life?🤷♂️
Being a 9 to 6 ‘office-worker’
By the time I graduated in 2019, my desire to become a senior Police officer had dropped down a notch. I mean I didn’t mind becoming one, but I was equally fine about not being one either. Hence, it didn’t come as a surprise when my senior officer interview was unsuccessful.
I then returned to becoming a GRF officer for close to 2 years before transferring to the Community Policing Unit (CPU) of MB NPC in 2021.
It was in CPU that my working hours became more akin to a traditional office hour job, basically Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm. The nature of work also became more corporate-like as the job scope involved liaising with external stakeholders and planning engagement events to reduce or prevent crime. Nevertheless, I was still deployed for ad-hoc security and major events. At times we also had to cover shifts when there was a lack of manpower…so not really a pure office hours position I would say.
Being a CPU officer was also my last held job position before my resignation in 2023.
Loss of purpose and sense of fulfilment
Now that you have a rough idea of my 11 years in the Police Force, let’s get into the reasons why I left.
I think the most crucial factor was that I lost a sense of purpose in what I was doing.
Now don’t get me wrong, working in the Police Force is an inherently meaningful career as your work can directly impact individuals while keeping crime off the streets. However, during my time as a CPU officer, I increasingly felt that the work I did was becoming more and more of a facade.
There were often times when I felt that the work I was doing was done just to appease the higher-ups or show that we were doing something instead of having any actual meaningful impact on crime or solving issues on the ground.
Now I get that some ‘play-acting’ would occur in any corporate job and the Police Force is no different. However, when it constitutes close to 70% of the work done, it really sucks out any meaning that one can find in their job.
Besides finding no meaning in the work I was doing, I also increasingly disliked the corporate culture of the Police Force. Everyone seemed to be just trying to please whoever was above them. This created a whole culture of having ‘yes’ men who acceded to anything put forth by the higher-ups, regardless of whether the said suggestions were practical or purposeful.
Thus, I started feeling that most of my work was being done not because it was inherently impactful, but rather because it was dictated so by the higher-ups.
I didn’t see a viable future in the force
Now, I don’t know if this factor stemmed from me losing purpose in my work, but I felt that I wasn’t really keen on the career progression path in the Police Force.
As most would know, the rank structure of the Police Force is split into the senior officer ranks and the regular police officer ranks.
While one can progress from the regular officer rank to the senior officer rank without a degree, it would likely require many years of service (think 15 to 20 years).
For those regular police officers with a degree who successfully become a senior officer, the path is more or less already fixed for the next 6 years or so. They would undergo training for around 6 months before becoming an investigator for 2 to 3 years and then a team leader for around 3 years.
Personally, I felt being an investigator was the epitome of being overworked and underpaid. Also, managing a team of officers wasn’t really my cup of tea either. Thus, I felt that the career progression in the Police Force didn’t appeal to me much. I mean sure the slightly higher pay is appealing but in exchange for doing something I don’t find meaning in? Hmmm…
So with me not finding much meaning in becoming a senior officer, the other career option would then be to jump around different departments in the Police Force. However, after working with higher management during my time as a CPU officer, I felt that there wouldn’t be much change in the corporate culture even if I were to move to different departments.
Hence, after considering my options in the Police Force, I felt there wasn’t a path that would provide me with fulfilment and growth as an individual.
A financial foundation to fall back on
After knowing that the next part of my career would likely not be in the Police Force, I then need to consider if I’m financially resilient for the ‘what if’ scenarios.
As some of you might know, I reached a net worth of $500K at the age of 31, with this amount I felt I could take some risk given that my retirement is more or less secured. In the worst-case scenario, I should still be able to easily find and survive on a job that pays me a $3k to $4k monthly salary.
In terms of savings, I also had more than a year of expenses saved up. So my thinking at that time was to pursue my interest during this one year and see where it landed me. If I’m not able to build a sustainable income during this one year, I would then look for a full-time job.
Thus with my accumulated savings and investments, I finally decided to take the leap of faith and resigned from the Police Force in mid-2023.
Conclusion
So yeap, those were my reasons for leaving the Police Force.
Now I just want to emphasize that I’m not implying that one should not pursue a career in the Police Force. If you have the interest and passion by all means go for it, I think it remains one of the few jobs that can really grow you as an individual.
I personally would also not regret the almost 11 years I spent in the Police Force. I think it really shaped and influenced my thinking and growth as an individual. It’s just that after so long in the force, I think a change would do me well in my life.