SINGAPORE – In just a few months, Home Team psychologist Sarah Lavinia Joseph and her team managed to develop and implement a correctional programme for etomidate abusers, as the number of such cases shot up in 2025.
That was the year the abuse of vapes laced with the powerful anaesthetic, which are called Kpods, became a crisis in Singapore.
Following the classification of etomidate as a Class C controlled drug in Sept 1, 2025, Joseph and her team got to work on the programme on a short deadline.
Joseph, a psychologist with the Singapore Prison Service (SPS), said: “The timeline was very tight. But the thing is, we were also not starting from scratch, because when you talk about addictions-related content, SPS has many years of experience and research.
“The basic theories, principles… those we’re aware of, but we also had to collect information on what does this group of (etomidate) abusers look like? How different would they be? And that was the challenge.”
The 10-session programme began in November 2025.
It aims to help participants explore the reasons for and impact of their etomidate abuse; to understand and make plans to manage their addiction cycle; and to guide them to strengthen their personal and social capital in planning for their future.
As at Oct 1, 2026, 67 etomidate abusers have undergone the programme, said SPS.
On Nov 13, Joseph was presented with the Ministry of Home Affairs Operational Excellence Award at the Minister’s Awards Presentation Ceremony.
A total of 104 awards were presented to outstanding officers, teams and agencies who demonstrated efficiency and competency in major operations and projects in the course of their work.
In his speech at the ceremony held at the Home Team Academy, Senior Minister K. Shanmugam said the use of technology has helped Home Team officers respond faster and deploy resources more effectively.
Citing an example, he said the use of police surveillance cameras (PolCams) has helped solved 10,000 criminal cases since they were launched in 2012.
Earlier in 2026, police officers used PolCam images to establish the identity of a man suspected of possessing a gun.
Shanmugam, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, said: “Our officers used PolCam images, established his identity and arrested him within eight hours. Further investigations led to four more arrests. More weapons were seized, together with etomidate vape pods, suspected drugs and drug paraphernalia.”
To date, the police have deployed over 100,000 PolCams, and plan to have a total of over 200,000 islandwide by the mid-2030s.
Senior Minister K. Shanmugam said the use of technology has helped Home Team officers respond faster and deploy resources more effectively.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
Another award recipient was Jennifer Quek from the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX).
She had wanted to be a cop, “(but) my mum said I cannot (be a policewoman) because I was petite. She said I wouldn’t be able to outrun (criminals) and cannot outfight them”.
So developing technology to help police officers became her preoccupation instead.
Quek, deputy director of Aerial Systems at HTX’s Robotics, Automation and Unmanned Systems (RAUS) Centre of Expertise, was presented with the Home Team Achievement Award for Project HT SkyGuardian, a modern drone with autonomous capabilities.
SkyGuardian is equipped with cameras, thermal imaging systems, searchlights and loudspeakers. It can also swop batteries on its own.
“You can be sitting in an office and launch it from a remote area,” said Quek.
Also receiving the Operational Excellence Award was Lieutenant Nur Shazlina Mohamad Ibrahim, who led a team over 36 hours to battle a major fire that broke out at a flour mill’s 15-storey grains conveyance system.
Recalling the fire in Keppel Road in November 2025, she said she had to divide the team into various sectors to coordinate firefighting efforts from different access points.
“As additional resources and ground commanders arrived, we were able to systematically tackle the multiple points of fire. The close coordination, teamwork, experience and commitment of everyone on the ground were instrumental in overcoming the operational challenges and mitigating the incident,” she said.
Inspector Bryan Ang Tai Yong, a senior investigation officer in Specialised Crime Branch at the Criminal Investigation Department, received the Operational Excellence Award for his team’s efforts in nabbing those involved in online child sexual exploitation activities.
Operation Cyber Guardian 2025 was a collaboration involving foreign law enforcement agencies that resulted in the arrest of 435 persons across six jurisdictions, including 21 people in Singapore.
Ang said he and other officers empathised with the victims.
“We had to see which cases had victims who were still (experiencing) ongoing harm that needed to be rescued immediately. Aside from just arresting the accused persons, I had to prioritise which victims needed help.”