Brunei Internal Security’s (BISD) has always been keen to provide security awareness talks to various schools, communities and departments upon request or invitation. However, the Community Outreach Program (COP) was first formally established in 2011 in response to the Ministry of Education’s invitation for BISD to join their `Forum Sinar`, a security awareness program for Year 7 students which usually runs over a period of five months. BISD has been participating in the forum ever since.
With the establishment of COP as well as BISD’s 133 hotline, BISD’s public exposure increased with various invitations to join community programs organized by other departments such as the Information Department’s ‘Program Awasi Anak Kitani’ and the ‘Program Perkampungan Sivik Ijazah’ for students studying abroad as well as invitations by other departments to provide security awareness talks during the orientation of new employees. Such invitations are not limited to other government departments but also from the private sector such as Royal Brunei and higher education institutions specifically during orientation such as Kolej Universiti Perguruan Ugama Seri Begawan (KUPUSB) and Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA). BISD is always open to these various invitations as well as those for roadshows and exhibitions as they provide a good opportunity to engage and interact with the public to spread security awareness. To date, BISD participates in an average of 70 talks, briefings, exhibitions and roadshows per year.
BISD has not limited its outreach only within Negara Brunei Darussalam but has also taken the initiative to touch base with Brunei students in United Kingdom; Cairo, Egypt; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Melbourne, Australia whilst BISD officers were travelling there on official business.
To truly encompass the work that BISD’s COP officers do, the name of the committee was changed to Security Awareness Committee (SAC) in 2016/2017.
