Chiang Mai launches crime crackdown

CHIANG MAI: -- Tourist police in the northern province of Chiang Mai have launched a sweeping clampdown on crime in anticipation of the upcoming tourism season, with close attention paid to criminals posing as tourists.

This morning Pol. Lt. Col. Nattawut Chotikanchawat, the Chiang Mai Tourist Police inspector, sent out 100 police officers and volunteers into the province to begin the crackdown.

The project will focus on weapons offences, property theft, and the provision of assistance for tourists. Officers will be stationed at the province’s major tourism destinations, while intelligence officers will be asked to keep a special lookout for criminals posing as tourists, many of whom prey on foreign visitors.

The tourist police have also asked members of the public and guesthouse owners to provide the police with information on both criminals and other people trying to take advantage of tourists. Members of the public wishing to give information will be able to use a 24-hour tourism police hotline.

In addition, the local tourism police have launched a tourist assistance centre at the Chiang Mai Tourist Police Station, where both Thai and foreign tourists will be able to come for help and advice on anything ranging from accommodation and tourist destinations to any problems they might face.

Pol. Lt. Col. Nattawut urged tourists visiting the province to take care of their personal belongings, and said that children should carry the names of their parents with them in case they got lost.

--TNA 2004-10-03

I await with breath in abatement.

Perhaps a general warning may be timely, about passports.

If you lose yours while in Thailand, worst case, you lose your credit/debit/ATM cards, cash and Passport, do NOT report directly to the police. Report it to your consulate. Contact your home and organise to get replacement cards, cash transfer etc, and an emergency passport.

Then approach the police, with a lawyer. You may well be jailed for no passport or means of support.

This is not a BS post. I have been corresponding with a UK citizen who lost his Passport, reported it to the Hotel (The old Holiday Inn on Superhighway in CM), was taken to the police station and jailed, for not being able to pay for his room.

It took 3 weeks to locate his family in UK and get money for him and the UK embassy bordered on being abso-bloody-lutely useless. The local Consul was helpful as she could be, to give her plenty of credit, but she was limited by what the Embassy allowed her to do.

Jail ladies and gentlemen, locked up.

Be <deleted> careful.

The only thing the article left out was the usual publicly-announced starting and stopping dates for this crackdown....