Singapore Police Force - Uniforms

Uniforms

Dark blue (or more accurately Dacron blue) is the organisational colour of the Singapore Police Force, and has remained so continuously since 1969, although the first police uniforms introduced in 1856 were also in the same colour.

On 1 July 1969, dacron blue made a comeback to the uniform with a force-wide change away from khaki overnight, in part to coincide with Singapore's 150th anniversary since its founding in 1819. The new uniform comprises a dark blue peak cap, shirt, trousers, black belt, shoes and socks, and coded whistle lanyard in blue and white. 3 large and 4 small metal buttons, metal collar badges, and a metal cap badge are affixed, and a black plastic name tag completes the uniform. Metallic ranks, if any, are fixed to the sleeve or on the shoulders for senior officers. The lanyard was changed to a metal chain in 1972, and in 1985, the material of the uniform was changed from 75% polyester 25% cotton to 100% polyester for ease of daily maintenance.

Derivatives of the standard blue uniform (collectively called the no.3 uniform) was adopted for specialised forces and for all officers in various occasions which calls for more formal or casual attire. The Traffic Police Department was amongst the few to move away from the all-blue attire, adopting a short-sleeved white tunic, dark blue breeches, a black leather Sam Browne belt, and riding boots for its officers performing mobile squad duties. A white crash helmet is worn when on the move, while a new dark blue jockey cap with chequered white and dark blue patterns around its circumference is worn when convenient while performing static duty. Members of the Vigilante Corps are also attired by a white short-sleeved top similar in design to the dark blue version for normal officers, gold-coloured buttons and badges, and a dark blue beret in place of the peak cap.

Combat uniforms has also been adopted for specialist units such as those from the Special Operations Command and the Police Coast Guard (PCG), collectively known as the No.4 uniforms. These involve the replacement of metal buttons with sewn-on plastic ones, the avoidance of all other metallic accruements which are deemed potentially hazardous to the officer or to others and the use of long-sleeved shirts. SOC officers wear combat boots while officers in PCG use lace up leather shoes with non-slip soles. These units also tend to adopt the beret as their headgear, although PCG officers use the baseball cap while on operational duties.

There was no major change to the uniform since then, except for the adoption of embroidered shoulder ranks and badges for all ranks in the 1990s. Other changes are less distinct, such as the upgrading of shoes used, the change of the belt material and belt buckle to one including the police crest, and changes to the peak cap to a more durable and ventilated version.