Jet-Ski Operators, Beach Vendors To Protect Phuket Tourists

[webfact]

Jet-ski operators, beach vendors to protect Phuket tourists

Patong Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakao says recruiting beachfront

workers as police volunteers is expected to make Patong more tourist friendly.

Photo: Warisa Temran

PHUKET: -- Patong Police plan to recruit beachfront workers as their eyes and ears in protecting Phuket tourists this high season, in addition to installing more closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) cameras.

“Usually, there are a lot of robberies during the high season. We don’t really have enough officers to take care of all the tourists during peak season,” explained Patong Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakao.

The recruitment of motorcycle taxi drivers, jet-ski rental operators, beachfront shop owners and other people who work along the beachfront as Civil Protection Volunteers is part of Patong Police Station’s plan to gear up for November.

“I plan to recruit about 50 volunteers to help keep watch in Patong. Whenever volunteers see something wrong, they can report it directly to the police, who will be there right on time – before anything worse happens,” said Col Arayapan.

Patong Police also plan to spend 15 million baht on installing more than 100 CCTV cameras.

“Currently, we have only 16 functioning cameras along Soi Bangla. Originally we had 36 cameras in the Patong area, but many of them are not working,” Col Arayapan explained.

He added that more powerful “pan-able” cameras were needed in three locations that had never been monitored with CCTV cameras before: near the Kalim Police Box, the Patong Hill intersection and along the road between Patong and Karon.

“We need only standard CCTV cameras in other areas, and about 100 cameras in total to cover the whole Patong area,” said Col Arayapan.

The installation of the CCTV cameras and the recruitment of beachfront workers as volunteers is expected to help police monitor Patong and make it more tourist friendly, he added.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/detail.asp?id=11226

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-10-18

[endure]

"The installation of the CCTV cameras and the recruitment of beachfront workers as volunteers is expected to help police monitor Patong and make it more tourist friendly, he added."

The installation of the CCTV cameras is expected to put yet another backhander in someone's pocket...

[Chang_paarp]

Fox in charge of the hen house comes to mind.

[katasyd]

Hahaha.

Jetski operaters and beach workers being recruited as tourist police?

Surely this can't be true.

This is laughable and will cause more problems than solving them by giving the scammers even more police power.

Happy high season..

[cgphuket]

I hurt myself when I fell off my chair laughing. Did he really say he would ask the main criminals in Phuket to watch out for tourists??? OMG!

[USExpat]

Oh great give the scam artist and crooks a badge to add to their bags of tricks to rip off tourist....I am going to have to send this to my friends who work at travel agencies.....ROFL

[steelepulse]

Now they can mediate in their own fines and cut out those pesky BIB's that want 20% of the fleecing that the extortionate jet ski boys demand.

[bdenner]

“I plan to recruit about 50 volunteers to help keep watch in Patong. Whenever volunteers see something wrong, they can report it directly to the police, who will be there right on time – before anything worse happens,” said Col Arayapan.

He has been misquoted!

Really said:-

“I plan to recruit about 50 volunteers to help keep watch in Patong. Whenever volunteers see something wrong, they can cover it up quickly so as the police can be kept at arms length, before anything worse happens and my BiB are caught receiving bribes. They will be paid directly to me!” said Col Arayapan.

[EyesWideOpen]

This guy must be on crack. .... Or the power of the jet ski scammers is so complete they have now talked the police into imbuing themselves with quasi police powers.

[laurentbkk]

any other "good" ideas like that ? I stopped to go to Phuket years ago as well as many of my friends , expats or tourists ...... There are better , cheaper funnier and SAFER .....what next ? jet ski operator governor of phuket ?

[frtiz]

They forgot to put in the "SATIRE" mark in the left top corner.

Edited October 18, 2011 by frtiz

[Payboy]

Patong Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakao

The bling on his uniform must have made him delirious.

[asdecas]

Put the arsonists in charge of the fire station? This one really takes the McVities.

[JSL]

[pauljones]

I think the Patong Police Superintendent needs to a GOOGLE:

Phuket tuk tuk

Phuket jet ski

These are the people they want looking after tourists?

Good Grief!

[Dogbreath]

This is a joke, right?? Oh well, TIT.

[sirchai]

I hurt myself when I fell off my chair laughing. Did he really say he would ask the main criminals in Phuket to watch out for tourists??? OMG!

Police volunteer shirts for all criminals. Is that what they want?

[pogal]

I wonder how much he paid for his posting there? Must have had to pay more than normal!

I have put it off for some time now but I will definitely be warning others to just stay away from Phuket (Patong) from now.

[arrowsdawdle]

"The installation of the CCTV cameras and the recruitment of beachfront workers as volunteers is expected to help police monitor Patong and make it more tourist friendly, he added."

The installation of the CCTV cameras is expected to put yet another backhander in someone's pocket...

The whole concept of volunteers just adds another hand to feed in the tea money food chain. These so called volunteers should more appropriately be called lookouts for the perps. What it does do is insulate the BIB with an excuse for things gone wrong..."We arrived soon after our volunteer notified us but were not prepared for the scope of the crime based on what he told us." or "Our volunteer was confused and excited and gave us a wrong address."

[saintofsilence]

Very easy to see that high authorities don't want lose income from these scams millions of baht a year Thailand is making out of this , Phuket , Pattaya and other resorts may all have one connection receiving big kick backs. Last year it was reported TAT complaints line were not allowed to respond to complaints about jet ski's .

The Mayor of Pattaya was hushed up on his pattaya future Facebook page and stopped responding to questions about jet ski's. Reports that the new call centre are not responding ,Tourist police won't help .

Jet ski scammers are protected now they have been given more protection , every country should be putting warnings out in alternative ways other than just web sites.

Authorities in Thailand could stop these scams in one day if they were serious they have all the evidence they need .

One of the most disgraceful parts of these scams is how photo manipulation seems to be occurring and not investigated when reported.

[sirchai]

Fox in charge of the hen house comes to mind.

Patong Police also plan to spend 15 million baht on installing more than 100 CCTV cameras.

15 million for installing empty boxes?

[RichardinBKK]

Oh great give the scam artist and crooks a badge to add to their bags of tricks to rip off tourist....I am going to have to send this to my friends who work at travel agencies.....ROFL

Yes, I really must agree with you on this one. This is the last straw...Phuket is forever off my "get away from BKK list." Why bother with this nonsense? It is the most absurd example of franchising corruption I have ever seen. It is doubly absurd now when Thai Tourism is at a tipping point. The news around the world is, "Thailand is flooded, the infrastructure is damaged, there are desperate and hungry people everywhere and crocodiles on the prowl. Do they really want a New York Times feature that points to "Criminals with Badges" ???

[NanLaew]

I hurt myself when I fell off my chair laughing. Did he really say he would ask the main criminals in Phuket to watch out for tourists??? OMG!

Why? Where does it say that Phuket taxi drivers are being enlisted?

[saintofsilence]

As an example Pattaya beach is covered in cameras and scammers are still scamming and assaulting tourists in. Clear view of the cameras and nothing happens.

Edited October 18, 2011 by saintofsilence

[sucher]

The day that Statement was made must have been Thailands answer to our April 1.

[czGLoRy]

one word sums this up

LOL

[Dukeleto]

Hahahaaahahaaa, seriously??? I had to open this thread as I was sure the heading was a mistake or some kind of intended play on words. My goodness me the mind boggles!

[NanaFoods]

What, ya mean no one is defending this as a plausibly sound decision?

[Jerry555]

I was just imagining how this would go .... jet ski operator , "please mr policeman i wanna report some of my co-workers who

just have beaten up some tourists because they didn't wanna pay 50.000 baht for some imagenary scratches on my jetski ,

can you please put these crooks in jail for a few years , rofl .

[apalink_thailand]

"The recruitment of motorcycle taxi drivers, jet-ski rental operators, beachfront shop owners and other people who work along the beachfront as Civil Protection Volunteers is part of Patong Police Station’s plan to gear up for November."

Its quite laughable.