Picture: Thai Rath

 

Top cop Lt-Gen Surachate Hakpan - the poster boy of the RTP known universally as Big Joke - went to Pattaya at the weekend and found that it was completely filthy.

 

At least the police station was and that was his main focus of attention..

 

The once sacked immigration chief now high ranking advisor usually visits local forces, says some nice things and goes back to Bangkok having praised local forces. 

 

Last week he did just that in Betong in the south where the police station was highly ranked for it's implementation of chief Gen Suwat Chaengyodsuk's much vaunted Smart Safety Zone 4.0 community policing and reporting system. 

 

But in Pattaya he had some stinging words at a meeting with all the local top brass and representatives from what influential media Thai Rath referred to as the Big 6 in English. 

 

In front of the regional deputy, provincial chief and the head of the Pattaya police station itself - Pol Col Kulachart Kulachai - Surachet delivered an attack on Pattaya's police.

 

He said:

 

"I've been coming to Pattaya for I don't know how many years. The police station here is just as filthy as it's ever been.

 

"You really can do much better than this. You need to be more efficient in what you do".

 

His remarks could be seen in a wider context as relating to the whole force's poor policing in Pattaya, notes ASEAN NOW. 

 

It is widely known that getting a police posting to Chonburi - and especially Pattaya - requires serious money to change hands as there are rich back hander pickings in the resort. 

 

The attack on Pattaya comes as the local force got a measly 23rd place in Smart Safety Zone rankings. 

 

Big Joke went further driving in the knife:

 

"Look at Muang district of Chonburi police station," he said of the station miles away in Chonburi city.

 

"They are less high profile than Pattaya and yet they are running things smoothly and efficiently and the police station looks professional".

 

They are #1 in the safety zone rankings making Pattaya stand out like a proverbial sore thumb.

 

He ordered the provincial chief to work with the Pattaya station chief to smarten up their ideas. 

 

Thai Rath said that in attendance at the meeting were Pol Maj-Gen Surajit Chingnawan, region 2 deputy, and provincial chief Pol Maj-Gen Attasit Kitjahan.

 

The Big 6 referred to the state and private sectors, education chiefs, religious reps, politicians and the press. 

 

ASEAN NOW notes that Big Joke - named after his penchant for conjee the boiled rice breakfast with an egg - has been tasked by Suwat to check up on the smart safety zone phase 2 throughout the country following pilot projects. 

 

Few in Pattaya would have noticed any difference in the policing there and we would like to ask our many readers at the resort whether they have noticed an improvement.

 

The safety zone plan - Suwat's baby since he rose to power - has been given an award in Dubai for community policing.

 

But it seems Pattaya is lagging behind. 

 

Will the arrival of the poster boy of the RTP - rehabilitated now following a highly public fall from grace in which he was told to shuffle paper at the PM's office - have any effect on Pattaya?

 

Or will everything return to "business as normal on the eastern seaboard" after Big Joke and his entourage leave town?

 

Stay tuned. 

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2022-08-01

 

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Filthy station for a filthy place seems about right ????

It's pretty greasy one could say. For all the money they make, that station should look like the Taj Mahal.

31 minutes ago, webfact said:

The police station here is just as filthy as it's ever been

Yes, agree, so much filth. 

 

 

What they expect, it is the main station for Pattaya, you might as well bulldoze the entire soi's and beachfront, it's all dirty there. Same with Jomtien, looks like a ghetto.

 

To go there for some hardcore holiday parties and fun yes, but to live there, one must lack creativity or just frequent bar girls all the time, else it's crazy to stay living there.

It would seem nothing has changed in 23year's. The place was a <deleted> hole back then.. The holding cells were a stinking disgrace.. And if big joke thinks it's actually  the police that do the cleaning. Then he needs a reality check 

Good job nobody called it a pigsty! 

2 hours ago, Shuya said:

It's pretty greasy one could say. For all the money they make, that station should look like the Taj Mahal.

Great location across from the beach.

 

Filthy dump.

 

The apartments behind look like some slum village from the 18th century.

 

No love lost on these turds. 

Big Joke went further driving in the knife: unfortunately just a massacre of words though????

This is the perfect thread for all the trolls stuck up in Nakhon Nowhere who are forbidden by their (ex-Pattaya working) wives to go anywhere near the place to get up from under their bridges and slag the place.

Happens every time there's a thread with "Pattaya" in them.

I think this guy is great!

Considering the size of the purported "contribution" required to get a Pattaya cop job, who has time to clean up the cop shop? They're all out hustling for loan payback.... and absence of tourists for a couple of years didn't help any...

Turn the air-conditioning off and they may actually be forced outside policing

 

Scrubbing toilets or doing real police work fall way down the priority list.

High on the priority list is working in the vicinity of a casino.

Build new police station and immigration on the darkside, plenty of room next to the railroad. 

9 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Build new police station and immigration on the darkside, plenty of room next to the railroad. 

I often wondered about that location in Jomtien...... when they moved there that was a fairly quiet place. Seems apparent it is not big enough on busy days and people lining up out in the sun sometimes is no way to treat anyone. It has to be somewhere the tourists can find and negotiate though and the deskside isn't it.  Perhaps split it into 2 whereby Expat type requirements are handled in a larger office over the railway tracks and TV Extensions done at Jomtien?

4 hours ago, jacko45k said:

often wondered about that location in Jomtien..

Remember the small office on Samui, then they moved across the street mainly because the officers lived in Nathon. Still had to que outside, no ticket system whatsoever. 

When they built the new three storage office in Maenam it was a huge improvement. Que indoors, tickets, Cafe outside. 

This place is larger than Jomtien.