Dark shades, beige berets, submachine guns: The police counterterrorism unit made up mostly of NSFs

“We saw someone sitting (on the road), and we established that was the driver,” he said, adding that the man looked dazed. “After that, we knew that it was a road traffic accident.”

Being first on the scene, INSP Herman checked if the driver was injured and found a victim pinned under the vehicle. The officers then detained the driver and waited for colleagues from the Traffic Police to arrive.

The crash killed two women and injured four others, all of them Filipino domestic workers. In September, the driver was jailed for two years and six months for dangerous driving.

While the incident was not an attack, INSP Herman said “it’s never a relief” as there were casualties involved. Either way, he was prepared for the worst-case scenario.

“That is what I’m trained for and that is what I’m going after,” he added. “If it is a hostile vehicle incident, then we treat it as a hostile vehicle incident, because we are weapon-ready.”

NSF-HEAVY

With the heavy responsibility of responding to possible terror incidents, one might assume that ProCom would largely be made up of elite regular officers.

Its officers protect critical infrastructure like industrial refineries, soft targets like the Orchard Road shopping belt and high-profile events such as the National Day Parade. They also engage in counter-drone operations.

But the unit is, in fact, made up mostly of NSFs – more than any other unit in the police. The police declined to give exact proportions due to operational security.

“If you give them the adequate training and support, they can be as good or even better than the regular officer,” ProCom commander Assistant Commissioner of Police (AC) Devrajan Bala said at a briefing on Thursday.

“That has been our experience working with NS officers.”