Chaiyaphum: Police officers suspended amid sex-bribe claims

[webfact]

Police officers suspended amid sex-bribe claims

By Sutthipong Settharangsi 
The Nation

 

 

Three police commanders in Chaiyaphum's Muang district have reportedly been transferred to inactive posts, pending a probe over bribe allegations involving underage prostitution.

 

A source at the Royal Thai Police said the Muang Chaiyaphum precinct superintendent Col Pongpat Chaengmeunwai, inspector Maj Pornchai Saengsila and Pornchai's deputy inspector Capt Uthai Hongwiset had been summoned to the provincial headquarters. 

 

Evidence of bribery was uncovered after the Department of Special Investigation and the Provincial Administration Department, acting upon an NGO's complaint to the Dhamrongtham Centre, conducted a sting operation on Tuesday night to arrest the owner of a Muang district's karaoke bar, Kanchana Thongluan.

 

The woman allegedly procured two 16-year-old girls, who were among the seven Thai sex workers there, to provide sexual services to customers. 

 

She reportedly said she charged the girls’ customers Bt1,200 each for sexual services and pocketed Bt300 as a commission. 

 

 

The bar owner also told police that a Muang Chaiyaphum policeman had collected tens of thousands of baht per month from her in exchange for allowing her to open the bar without a proper licence and run an underage sex business. 

 

Officers found Line chat messages between Uthai and Kanchana as evidence, it was reported. 

 

The three officers were unavailable for comment.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30352802

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-23

[Esso49]

No you don't say ? Well I am flabbergasted that they have discovered this and clearly there must be some mistake somewhere . RTP  corrupt, how can that be ? Come on Mr PM,   out with Section 44 in order that one of your pet agencies can be cleared of such outrageous and highly unusual actions by misinformed other members  of the RTP which is clearly a misconception on somebody's part.

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, Esso49 said:

No you don't say ? Well I am flabbergasted that they have discovered this and clearly there must be some mistake somewhere . RTP  corrupt, how can that be ? Come on Mr PM,   out with Section 44 in order that one of your pet agencies can be cleared of such outrageous and highly unusual actions by misinformed other members  of the RTP which is clearly a misconception on somebody's part.

 

Totally close down the rtp and put 90% of them under house arrest for the next 30 years.

 

Bring in a hired highly credible police force from a developed country fo 30 years along with strict regulations that if any of the hired force is errant there will be very severe punishment.

 

Not going to happen of course, however I wonder whether the current RTP top officers and all the force and any Thai government are capable of planning and successfully executing serious change.

 

 

[bluesofa]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The three officers were unavailable for comment.

Well not via Line anyway.

 

[mercman24]

ha ha UK cops would have a field day here, no this, no that  you know what i mean without listing all the stuff we see here every single flippin day

[TheFishman1]

Why transfer them why not fire and bring to court O wait that would mean the real higher ups would get there peace of the pie TIT

[MaxLee]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Three police commanders in Chaiyaphum's Muang district have reportedly been transferred to inactive posts, pending a probe over bribe allegations involving underage prostitution.

Inactive post aka Happy early reitrement

[ThaiFelix]

19 hours ago, Esso49 said:

No you don't say ? Well I am flabbergasted that they have discovered this and clearly there must be some mistake somewhere . RTP  corrupt, how can that be ? Come on Mr PM,   out with Section 44 in order that one of your pet agencies can be cleared of such outrageous and highly unusual actions by misinformed other members  of the RTP which is clearly a misconception on somebody's part.

No! that is not how we approach such a problem.  Section 44 will be used to apprehend and execute by garroting those responsible for disclosing such fake news to the public and thus degrading the reputation of both our honest police force and our beloved homeland!!

[bluesofa]

10 minutes ago, ThaiFelix said:

No! that is not how we approach such a problem.  Section 44 will be used to apprehend and execute by garroting those responsible for disclosing such fake news to the public and thus degrading the reputation of both our honest police force and our beloved homeland!!

Nothing could be fuhrer from the truth.

 

[hotchilli]

Surely not .... it must all be a misunderstanding?

The highly regarded, trusted to serve the public BiB  getting involved in the "seedy side of things"

instead of cleaning up the streets?.

Nah

[lust]

21 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Totally close down the rtp and put 90% of them under house arrest for the next 30 years.

 

Bring in a hired highly credible police force from a developed country fo 30 years along with strict regulations that if any of the hired force is errant there will be very severe punishment.

 

Not going to happen of course, however I wonder whether the current RTP top officers and all the force and any Thai government are capable of planning and successfully executing serious change.

 

 

Seriously, why would you move to Thailand?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

They're in it up to their eyeballs on a routine basis... as the continuing series of brothel / massage parlor / karaoke cafe busts -- usually by other entities than the RTP -- end up producing regular evidence of payoffs and collaboration with local officers.

[metisdead]

A post using oversize font (again) has been removed.  Please use the default forum font size when posting, just like everybody else does. 

[MarcIssan]

I read a report here in Thailand investigated by a farang that the 'inactive posts' are in the South where all the trouble is now.  The one reason he concluded for the long-enduring problems there is that all the police who should be trying to keep the peace were inept in some manner and transferred there as punishment.  Now you have hundreds of inept police all in the same region and the terrorists have basically been given free reign because the RTP there don't know what to do, they likely don't care, and also are likely to be on the bribe list to stay away from certain areas leaving the local groups in power to continue their activities.  

[chama]

Its a pity that everyone knows the RTP regularly take bribes and it is considered by many an acceptable practice. We know foreigners are constantly facing false charges in order to coax tea money out of them but many Thais get fleeced as well and the political leaders just sit there smiling like big dumb monkeys.

[Stokakrishna]

what is an "inactive post"???? 

 

A place where they cannot collect bribes??

[wildewillie89]

Police moving to inactive posts means they moved buildings generally, so to another police department. 

For a start, all karaoke places pay police. It is no secret, no matter where it is in the country. The issue with this case and why it made the media was the underage girls. 

This case is much more complex...just before we all pass judgement on the police.

The place never had any underage girls working there previously. From what I hear, staff from a department (that was not police), set up the place to improve their own image. They went undercover and asked for underage girls. The place denied them, they kept on coming and the place kept on denying. Finally they offered to pay an amount the place could not refuse and found the girls (who had never worked in karaoke). The place deserves the punishment they get for doing that. 

However, as far as I know the police were unaware of this and were just collecting the usual for the usual practice. Departments do this every now and then when they need to make their portfolio look better to move up the ladder as to move up you must display certain awards. The investigation continues. 

Edited September 10, 2018 by wildewillie89

[scorecard]

On 8/24/2018 at 3:11 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

They're in it up to their eyeballs on a routine basis... as the continuing series of brothel / massage parlor / karaoke cafe busts -- usually by other entities than the RTP -- end up producing regular evidence of payoffs and collaboration with local officers.

And further, as said many times before, how come their superiors aren't closely monitoring the activities / the work performance of their reporting staff?

 

 

 

[wildewillie89]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

And further, as said many times before, how come their superiors aren't closely monitoring the activities / the work performance of their reporting staff?

 

 

 

Why would they? Chain of command translates to percentage of money.