Foreigners Required To Register At Local Police Station

[G54]

They want my details??

<deleted> that.

[Texpat]

It's hard for me to believe the Thai cops are doing anything in my best interest.

If I didn't personally witness their massively corrupt ways so regularly, I might not be so reticent to believe them.

[satiariyan]

It's hard for me to believe the Thai cops are doing anything in my best interest.

If I didn't personally witness their massively corrupt ways so regularly, I might not be so reticent to believe them.

What kind of neighborhood do you live in? I've only had personal contact with the police 6 times through 5 years and all 6 times they didn't but do what was needed to solve the "problem" in peace and quiet - no money ever did shift hands, although I were quite willing to depart with some as a tip for good service. The last encounter was last weekend where I had a flat tire on the highway. Asked the people at the nearby stalls, but no repair shop within reasonable distance - they all recommended me to go to the nearby highway police boot. I did so, the police guy on duty went out to look for the police guy who knew about repairing flat motorcycle tires, but he was off duty - so, rather than saying "can't do" the officer went out on the highway and stopped a pickup truck (probably scaring the driver to death). By mutual effort the police guy, the driver, and yours sincerely got the motorcycle up on the pickup. When we were ready to drive off the police guy said "wait", went into his boot and returned with a pack of three ice creams. Off we drove, but the story doesn't stop here. I and my motor bike were dropped at a repair shop 10 km down the road - and then I discovered that I had forgotten my bag outside the police boot with a laptop and 8,000 bath in cash. All lost i thought, but when the tire could hold air an hour later, I went back fearing the police guy would just say "have not seen", which - for all I could possible know - might even be true since the bag was left outside the boot. Nevertheless, the bag was handed over on sight - clearly after having undergone a research but with all content still present. I tried to pull out a couple of hundreds to show my appreciation of the honesty, but they were not accepted.

Despite the fact that all of my non-massive personal experiences with the Thai police are in contradiction, I won't dispute whether corruption exists within the same force. I just can't but wonder what kind of life is lived by a person who says: "If I didn't personally witness their massively corrupt ways so regularly..."

Edited June 6, 2009 by satiariyan

[retiredusn]

Had a couple of police over yesterday for a few beers (one of them highway police) and asked them the question about reporting to them and they both said NO it would be too much trouble and they have never required it, just told me it was a immg. issue and to continue 90 day reports. So for the Chanthaburi area this is a closed issue........................Have a great Thia day