Police emergency SMS sender ID changed to 70999 from Oct 1
Emergency SMSes sent by the police will show the sender ID 70999 starting Oct 1.
The discontinuation of its previous sender ID, 71999, is part of efforts by the Ministry of Home Affairs to standardise sender IDs used by the Home Team Departments, the police said on Sept 27.
For instance, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) uses the sender ID 70995 under its 995 emergency call service, catering to callers who are deaf, mute, or have speech impairments.
This allows them to correspond with SCDF by SMS at this number during crises such as fires or medical emergencies.
Police said that move to standardise these sender IDs aims to improve the recognisability and recall of SMSes from the Home Team, which protects people against scammers who impersonate these departments.
The police emergency SMS was launched in 2016 as part of the Republic’s SGSecure movement. It allows those in emergency situations where it is unsafe to speak on the phone, as well as people with auditory or speech impairments to communicate with the police.
In non-emergency situations, the public is advised to submit information on suspicious activities via online portal i-Witness, e-services available in the Singapore Police Force website, or the Police@SG App, to lodge a police report.
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