Meet the Home Team Sustainment Centre

With threat actors increasingly turning to technology to accomplish their malicious goals, HTX knew that its capability sustainment efforts had to transform to allow our Home Team Departments (HTDs) to stay ahead of the curve and be well-prepared to tackle any technologically sophisticated threats that come our way.

The result of this transformation is the Home Team Sustainment Centre (HTSC), a facility equipped with cutting-edge technology that provides HTX an overview of the readiness levels of most of the Home Team’s assets on a single screen (yes, it’s a very big screen).

What assets are we talking about? Think police cars, ambulances, Home Team websites, building facilities like lifts, chillers and server rooms, and even digital apps that help officers with tasks like the drawing of weapons and clocking in and out of work.

HTSC was launched on 1 August 2024 and is progressively ramping up its capabilities and onboarding the various HTDs. As of April 2025, the centre is already monitoring the assets of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and the Singapore Police Force.

The centre will have oversight of the rest of the HTDs by 2027.


HTSC will eventually monitor the health of:

100,000 +

Servers and end-point devices

300 +

Systems

3,000 +

Vehicles

100 +

Vessels

20 +

Buildings

Security
Ops Centre
(SOC)

• Monitors and remedies security incidents
• Hunts for cyber threats (e.g. identifying and taking down fake Home Team websites)

Network
Ops Centre
(NOC)

• Central fault reporting centre for Ministry of Home Affairs agencies
• Executes day-to-day operations and tracks KPIs to ensure that outcomes are met
• Identifies and fixes network anomalies
• Forecasts network usage and ensures Home Team has sufficient network capacity

Building
Ops Centre
(BOC)

• Monitors health and conducts pre-emptive maintenance of Home Team buildings and infrastructure
• Improves sustainability of Home Team buildings and infrastructure by identifying and rectifying excessive use of energy and water

Platform
Ops Centre
(POC)

• Monitor health and conduct pre-emptive maintenance of Home Team equipment, vehicles, and vessels
• Ensure Home Team operations are not impeded by avoidable vehicular or equipment breakdowns

The interconnectedness of things

Think of the Home Team’s assets as a person.

Now imagine this person is experiencing frequent bouts of fatigue as well as dry skin. Like most people, this person instinctively seeks to remedy these ailments by addressing each of them separately.

To address the issue of fatigue, he starts by going to bed earlier and engaging in moderate physical activity to boost energy levels. To treat his dry skin, the man simply slaps on moisturiser that he bought from the supermarket.

Unbeknownst to him, these two ailments are not isolated problems but symptoms of a much larger problem.

Weeks later, the man starts developing other symptoms such as weight loss, blurred vision and gum infections. He finally decides to see a doctor, who after conducting some tests gives the man a grave diagnosis.

In the context of HTSC, a problem like a chiller breakdown may not always be as innocuous as at first glance, because issues are often systemic and our tech is inter-dependent.

Here’s a potential scenario that could happen:

Pre-empting problems with data

What’s more, having this comprehensive overview of Home Team assets also means that HTSC can at times act as a “clairvoyant” and predict when a problem might occur.

How? In the context of vehicles, the use of fleet telemetry - technology that combines GPS tracking and onboard diagnostics - allows HTSC staff to monitor things like speed changes in a vehicle.

Why is this factor important? Because frequent speed fluctuations while driving might suggest problems with the engine or transmission. Being aware of this issue would thus allow HTSC staff to quickly flag the ambulance for maintenance before it breaks down.

This pre-emptive measure is crucial because, well, lives are at stake!

What’s more, the sensors also help with other matters like monitoring fuel efficiency. Doing so would help the Home Team reduce fuel costs and improve overall efficiency.

Meanwhile, sensors for escalators in Home Team facilities monitor things like vibrations and speed anomalies, allowing maintenance staff to get a sense of when breakdown are imminent.