Just Follow Law

This week, I was on course for my new temporary posting as a PIC officer.

PIC stands for Person-In-Custody which basically translates into police officers taking care of people in police custody, may they be accused persons or people seeking police protection. So this is where we come in. We take care of people in our lock-up.

But of course, this means there is the possibility of unpredictable 'human danger'. The accused can at any time attack the police officer on duty with whatever they could get their hands on. This just means we have to be more careful with what we do and stuff. But then again, I will not be doing this for long.

As I said above, this is only temporary. This will only go until September because ...

... I got into the OCT course. =D

The OCT course doesn't start till September so they had to give us something to do and this just happened to be it.

Nevertheless, before the POP, my OC informed me during our graduation dinner that I had passed the final interview and am in for the OCT course. The final hurdle will be a final of the final interview at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) sometime later. Not too sure what we have to do there but he told me that if you manage to get to the CMPB stage, it means you're pretty much through. So praise God. All obstacles were cleared!

By right, a lot of things should not have happened.

Because I volunteered for NS (before turning 18), I was 'not suppose' to have done many things. Mainly these:-

• Wear the ever respected dark blue uniform for the Singapore's Special Constable (SC) as I was supposed to be a Vigilante Corps (VC).




• Hold a gun




• Shoot a gun




• Be with the ITE squad (by right, I was suppose to be in the VC squad but in actual fact, I was suppose to be in the A-Level squad)




• Wear the Corporal rank




• Receive the PNS award




• Get into OCT

And so who do we blame for all this? I believe we referred to this phenomenal as an 'Admin Muck-Up'. Don't ask me how all this happened. All I know is that there was an admin muck-up (or at least I'd like to think so XD) and when they discovered that I had made it to the final 4 OCT selection and the top-5 for the PNS award, they realised that I was not even 18 yet. Unfortunately for them, it was too late and now I realise that big organisations can make major mistakes as to see me defy all policies that states people like me aren't allowed to do such things.

In any case, it was a wonderful muck-up and I loved how it all happened. Looking back, it's all so funny.

I even remembered the day I went for the NS registration. It stated on the sheet that I should be a 'VC' and not 'SC'. Yet on the enlistment day, I was automatically placed into a ITE group with me being the only 'A-Level' in the squad. They only recognized that I had an A-Level qualification weeks before I passed out, so that couldn't explain why I was upgraded from VC to SC on the first day.

Nevertheless, what was even more amazing was how I managed to pull through all the way into the OCT course. Actually, I am not allowed to even get nominated because by right, I am 'under aged', yet there was no ruling that said specifically that I was not allowed for this course. So to look at all this now, we really have to thank and praise God for all that has happened thus far.

I say that because I believe that the amazing stuff has not yet been completed. I got this far and I believe that there are much more to come! If God could get me into this very exciting course, surely the course itself will be even more crazy! I will be stressed out to the bone with all my work but I'm sure great results will come of it! Be it something that might praise God or not. Either way, how fun! Can't wait for the real fun to begin!

So I will return back to the Police Academy in September for the officer training. In the mean time, I will be posted to the PIC course. This whole week has been course training for this posting and I have to say, it has been great!

Not the course itself but rather the way the course has been conducted.

The course was suppose to start at 8:30am and finish at 6pm.

But our very cool OC goes, "Ok boys, we'll start at 9am and finish around ... oh, I dunno ... 4:30pm? Sound good?" The first time he said that, we were ecstatic! We were expecting something like 9am to 5pm but to cut an extra 30mins of the lesson, that's even better! But that's the least of it.

Like how he said the lesson would start at 9am sharp; our very cool OC actually rocks up between 9:25am to 9:55am for class. So what do we do before that?

Sleep!

As soon as class began, which usually started moving at 10am, he'd comment that we'll be soon be going on a short break. By 10:30am, he would finally decide that it was appropriate for a class break which will go till 10:50am. At first, we were not aware of what we were getting into. We simply agreed that a 20min break would be great but that wasn't it! We were allowed to relax even more because he would rock up at the classroom (because he would go off to his office to eat something) between 11:00am to 11:15am. What do we do during that time? We would either ..

Sleep!

Or stand outside in the corridor terrorising trainees with our Corporal rank and boy is it fun!

Resuming part two of our morning class, our OC then states that we shall leave for lunch at 12pm, no later. Obviously, this kinda motivation keeps us going and we listen. After all, we have been sleeping many times during the day already. Keeping awake in that mightily cold air-con room was not too awfully difficult at this stage.

By 12pm, we would be walking out for our 2 hour lunch break.

But how long can lunch go for? Taking my own sweet time walking, ordering, eating, clearing, walking, all that can take roughly 40mins. So what do I, and the rest of the gang, do for the rest of the time?

Sleep!

I'd usually sleep for an hour or so. Amazed? Yeah! I am too! Especially even after getting 9 hours of sleep every night! But there is something about that room that makes me so sleepy! I think it's the fridge-like air-con.

Would you be shocked if our OC came back at 2pm?

I would be if he did. That's what so great about this guy! He rocks up late all the time so we would usually begin our afternoon session between 2:30pm to 3:00pm. And yes, at 3:30pm, we would usually take a break which would go till 4pm.

But does it start at 4pm sharp? Hardly! As much as we hate him coming back late this time round (cause we wanna go home), he'd usually enter into the classroom around 4:05pm to 4:15pm. So what do we do for the last 15mins of class?

No no, we don't sleep. Not this time. Just endure the final few minutes as he talks about his experiences in the police force. Not too bad I guess. We just have to sit impatiently as we dwell on the thought of running free in the next few minutes. It can get pretty clear that we would be thinking about that because whenever he would pose the question, "Any question?" Everyone would answer, "Nooo."

And that's what I've been doing for this whole week and I'm sad to say that tomorrow is our last day. It's been so much fun, I'm gonna miss it. What's even more cool is that we don't have to march as we walk around the PA. That's so cool! And what's even more cool than that is that we are allowed to eat at the cafe during office hours. So we'd just go downstairs and grab some food during any one of our breaks. Why? Just because we can. Some of them would order Wanton Mee, Chicken Cutlet, Fried Rice, whatever is available. I'd go down for the hot paus (buns) and a cup of ice milo or horlicks.

Oh yes, life as a Singaporean Policeman. The Americans got their donuts. We have our sweet sweet cafe XD