The Straits Settlements Police Force (SSPF), the Straits Settlements Police (SSP), or the Straits Police, was the federal police agency for the Straits Settlements. It oversaw the police of Singapore, Penang Island, Province Wellesley, and Malacca. At certain periods, it also policed the Dindings, Pangkor Island, the Crown Colony of Labuan, Christmas Island, and Brunei. The Straits Police did not, however, have any police in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The SSPF collapsed in 1942 with the Japanese invasion of Malaya. After the war, the former SSPF resources were absorbed by the Civil Affairs Police Force. SSPF is a predecessor of the Singapore Police Force, the Royal Brunei Police Force, and the Royal Malaysia Police.

Origins

Policing in the Straits prior to 1872 Police forces existed in the Straits and the Malay Peninsula long before the establishment of the Straits Settlements. The Malacca Sultanate had possessed a centralized police system administered by a collection of Temenggong. Under the Temenggong, Penghulu enforced security in their villages and towns. On 10 August 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque landed in Malacca, and during the reign of Portuguese Malacca, a different system was established under the military. In the 16th Century, the Portuguese established the Kapitan Administration. On 16 January 1641, Dutch Malacca replaced Portuguese rule, and they eventually introduced the Malacca Burgher Guard. In 1795, as Holland was threatened with invasion during the Napoleonic Wars, William V, Prince of Orange fled to England and issued the Kew Letters, after which, the British Empire secured a presence in Malacca. However, British Malacca was not established until 1826, when the Dutch officially surrendered the territory.

After the establishment of Prince of Wales Island (also known as Penang), that British possession had no centralized system of law and order there outside of the military. The First Charter of Justice was signed on 25 March 1807 by King George III. With the Charter of Justice, the first "modern" police force in the region was established. That charter, however, only applied to Prince of Wales Island, and did not extend beyond it.

The Singapore Police Force had been established in 1820, only a year after the establishment of British Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles.

Early Straits Settlements (1826–1872) In 1826, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore were united as the Presidency of the Straits Settlements. With the new Presidency established, on 27 November 1826, King George IV issued the Second Charter of Justice to allow for law and order administration outside of Penang Island, with the official document arriving by sailboat in the Straits in 1827. Under the new system, the Settlements each had their own police forces overseen by their Resident Councillors. They were small forces and often considered inadequate to meet the needs of their communities.

In 1830, the Presidency was downgraded to Residency status and became the Residency of the Straits Settlements, and the justice system broke down; every court in the Straits was closed, ushering in a wave of unsolved crime. Singapore was considered the worst of the Settlements in crime, compounded by the fact that the Dutch East Indies exiled many of their criminals to Singapore. In 1846, while Governor Butterworth was visiting Penang Island, the Justices of the Peace superseded his authority and appointed Thomas Dunman as the Superintendent of Police for Singapore.

Governor Butterworth issued the Bill To Provide for the Appointment of Constables and Peace Officers at the Settlements in the Straits, which was read by the Council of Calcutta in September 1846. In 1847, the bill was ratified as Act III of 1847.

In April 1846, at George Town, Penang, the capitol of that province and former capitol of the Straits Settlements, corruption in the police had forced the public to hold a meeting and demand the creation of a Deputy Superintendent of Police for Penang. Governor Butterworth refused.

Police Act of 1856 and the first Commissioners of Police In 1856, the Legislative Council of India debated the Police Bill of 1856. Chief Justice James William Colvile and Barnes Peacock greatly discussed whether Resident Councilors should or should not hold the powers of the judiciary, police, and executive, and that police commissioners should be created for each of the Straits. Governor Blundell objected to their opinion, but they overruled him, and for the first time, the office of "police commissioner" was established for the control over independent and unique police forces at each of the Settlements.

The Resident Councilors, however, were simply given the lateral title of Commissioner of Police in their Settlements; Henry Somerset Mackenzie for Singapore, Henry Stuart Man for Malacca, and William Thomas Lewis for Penang. Bruce Robertson was appointed as the first Deputy Commissioner of Police for Penang, and he was also made responsible for the system of justice overseen by the Penghulus of Province Wellesley. The first Deputy Commissioner of Police for Malacca was George Cox. George Wahab was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Singapore.

In 1857, Thomas Dunman replaced Mackenzie, and became the first independent Commissioner of Police for Singapore.

In this early era, police officers and peons were overworked and underpaid, as were their superior officers. Thomas Dunnman was the only superior in the Settlements to have secured a decent salary; his counterparts in Malacca and Penang, the Deputy Commissioners, were both so underpaid that they were even separately accused of accepting bribes. Bruce Robertson, who had served in Penang until 1860, when he was made Acting Commissioner of police in Singapore in 1861, suffered a major breakdown in health in 1862.

The historian C. M. Turnbull writes that, in this era; "It was easy to dump corpses in the jungle or the sea, and even in the middle of town murderers could bury victims in public cemeteries in broad daylight because no funeral records were kept." In 1864, the arrival of gas lighting did alleviate some crime, but it was still unmatched by the police. Merchants took to the practice of hiring private security, instead of relying on the police.

Governor Cavenagh did much to build-out the police forces of the Straits; he established the first police stations on the Singapore side of the Straits of Johor, established frontier outposts in Malacca, created the Marine Police, and embedded tribal headmen into secret societies to spy on them.

In 1867, British Bengal rule in the Straits was ended, and the Straits Settlements were made a Crown Colony.

Establishment of the Straits Settlements Police Force (1872) The Police Force Ordinance of 1872 merged the formerly independent police forces of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, conglomerating them under the new federalized and centralized police force for the new Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements. Through the merger, those former police forces were downgraded from fully-fledged police forces to territorial police units within the structure of the Straits Settlements Police Force.

SSPF itself was created in response to the need for a centralized command structure to combat Chinese secret societies in the region, so that each state of the Straits Settlements could have the same access to criminal intelligence reports and profiles on those criminals. In almost every Colonial Annual Report published by the Straits Settlements, a section or chapter was dedicated to the police efforts on suppressing these secret societies.

For the first time in the whole of Malaya, the duties of a police officer were officially defined in the Police Force Ordinance.

Composition

Sikh Contingent

In 1879, the Straits Police established a Commission of Inquiry to determine whether the force should be bolstered by a Sikh Contingent, and several British officers who had formerly served with Sikhs in Punjab stated their opinion that the colony could benefit from this. After it was agreed to form the Contingent, volunteers were accepted from Punjab.

One of the first volunteers was Assistant Superintendent Stevens, formerly a member of the Indian Police Force. On 26 March 1881, Stevens arrived in Singapore as the first Officer in Charge of the Sikh Contingent of the Straits Settlements Police. He brought with him 54 Sikhs that would become his first officers and constabulary. For the remainder of the year, they built-out the structure of the Contingent.

The Sikh Contingent was officially constituted in November 1881, with a strength of 165 Sikhs. Back home, in Punjab, the Contingent gained a quick reputation as an honorable and viable career path for Sikh recruits. Only nine years after the Sikh Contingent had been established, Samuel Dunlop stated that they were: "the best and most satisfactory contingent in the force."

Official records of the Straits Police state that they were the SSPF's "shock troops," or quick reaction force, ready at a moment's notice to be deployed to anywhere in the colony as heavy reinforcements to beleaguered police. They slept in separate barracks from the other members of the force, and reported directly to the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Sikh Contingent, whose headquarters were in Singapore. The Sikh Contingent OIC reported directly to the Inspector General of Police.

The Sikh OIC determined their training, organisation, and duties, as per the needs of the Chief Police Officer of each Settlement. If they were not needed for "barracks work," they were often assigned as personal bodyguards and escorts for high-ranking government officials and in various government departments.

Initial recruits at Singapore were expected to be at least 175cm tall (5 foot 7 inches). After swearing their oaths at the Magistrate's office, they were baptized at the Sikh Contingent Gurdwara. Sikh Contingent members were not allowed to shave, and were expected to wear their turbans as part of their official uniform – British officers during inspection would grade them according to these standards.

The first Gurdwara in Singapore, simply known as the Police Gurdwara, was at the Pearl's Hill Barracks. It was the first Gurdwara ever built in Singapore. The government appointed a Granthi to serve with the Contingent. In time, civilians were allowed into the Temple, and the Granthi oversaw the religious education of their youth. After the First World War, the Sikh Contingent built a new, larger Gurdwara on Silat Road. Inspector General Alexander Richard Chancellor laid its foundation stone on 18 December 1922.

At Penang, the first Gurdwara was erected in 1899, with the Chief Police Officer at the time, E. A. Gardner, serving as the first President of the Gurdwara.

Like in many other places in the British Empire, the Sikhs of the Straits Police were often the first Sikhs to settle in the communities policed by them, being the founders of successive generations of Sikhs.

In 1936, there were 359 members of the Sikh Contingent stationed in Singapore (15% of Singapore's total police), 110 in Penang (12%), 36 in Malacca (10%), and 31 on Christmas Island (100%).

The Sikh Contingent was disbanded with the fall of Singapore, and was not re-instated in the reconstructed Singapore Police Force after the war.

Organisation

The Straits Settlements Police Force was commanded by the Inspector General of the Straits Settlements Police Force. The first Inspector General of the SSPF was Charles Bushe Plunket, who in 1875 went to fight in the Perak War. SSPF Headquarters were in Singapore, the capitol city, largest in population, and most economically important state of the Straits Settlements.