Thailand weighing up police conscription

[webfact]

Thailand weighing up police conscription
Bangkok, Thailand | AFP |

BANGKOK: -- Thailand is mulling the re-introduction of police conscription, a spokesman said Monday, as the much-maligned and poorly paid force looks to boost its ranks by several thousand each year.

The kingdom's police have come under intense scrutiny since a May army coup, with the military purging dozens of top officers seen as cosy with the elected former government of Yingluck Shinawatra, whose billionaire brother Thaksin is an ex-policeman.

The police are unpopular with Thais who bemoan routine bribe-taking, while the recent murder of two British backpackers on a holiday island has opened the force to criticism that it is poorly trained in investigating crime.

The cabinet has already agreed "in principle" to conscript 5-10,000 men -- aged 21 -- annually across the country, a National Police spokesman told AFP.

"Currently we are lacking police officers. (If approved) Police conscripts will work in areas across the country where there are high crime rates," said Police Lieutenant General Prawut Thavornsiri, adding the order still needs full cabinet approval.

If rubber-stamped by cabinet, the military will oversee the police draft, he said, adding recruits were likely to be paid $245-275 a month, slightly higher than the minimum wage of around $220.

Thailand ended police conscription a decade ago and has around 230,000 officers across the country.

But currently all 18-year-old men are already meant to register for the army draft before serving from when they are 21 for at least two years, according to the Interior Ministry.

Thailand's police -- notorious for taking streetside bribes for everything for traffic offences to running unlicensed bars -- are seen as broadly loyal to Thaksin, the self-exiled former premier who was ousted in a previous coup in 2006.

Thaksin left the Royal Thai Police with the rank of lieutenant colonel after more than decade in the force, but he still draws loyalty from senior officers and many among the rank-and-file.

Analysts say the military has hacked away at his police power base since its takeover in May, moving many senior officers seen as in cahoots with the telecoms magnate-turned politician whose parties have won every Thai election since 2001.

The new national police chief, Somyot Poompanmoung, is believed to be close to the junta after impressing military chiefs with his handling of anti-coup protests in the wake of the army power grab.

He has vowed a harsh crackdown on police corruption.


-- (c) Copyright AFP 2014-11-04

[NongKhaiKid]

Great idea !

The ranks of the BIB are filled with those who joined with public service being the furthest thing from their minds so what will those ' forced ' to join be like ?

[Chang_paarp]

I don't suppose reforming the Police to a professional force and make the wage structure reasonable crossed anyone's mind? Attract some who actually want to join and train them to do their jobs in a professional manner.

With a force of 230,000 there must be a lot of inactive posts.

[Mosha]

Will those with only 1 Thai parent be able to join in the lottery?

[simonuk]

How would you motivate those guys or ensure that they were not connected to the very people they are supposed to be preventing from commiting crimes. Daft.

[chainarong]

Police constipation would be more like it , Christ what a country . the military conscription interferes with the guy's education, if they are lucky enough to be at UNI, conscripts having to drop subjects because where they are sent to their is no courses in that area, they don't want to be there , the top brass don't want them , so what the hell would they love about conscription into the police force, of course the proper way to overcome a shortage would be better pay and conditions , that's why there is a shortage, actually the population are telling you something , quick fix schemes that Thailand dearly loves comes back to bite you on the arse every time.

[Briggsy]

There is no shortage. The UK has 140,000 police officers. Thailand has a similar population size and has 230,000 and many more thousands police volunteers. They still do a far worse job.

What there is here is very inefficient use of police and some sort of hidden agenda. I am not sure what it is. A draft offers lots of graft opportunities. A draft may reduce the salary bill. Conscripts can be used to do the jobs others don't want to do since they cannot leave.

[Commerce]

So give the youngsters a uniform, 8,500 B/month, and that's the ultimate answer to the end of bribery?

New beginnings, obviously.

[yellowboat]

It is a tiny bandage for a gaping wound and I believe it was like this prior to Thaksin taking office. And why wouldn't be ? The pay is horrendous. Police work gets in the way of making a living.

[kamahele]

Um perhaps the proper training and salary might work better than forcing people into the police force. Just saying.....

[inzman]

Proper training, and proper pay. That is the only way to get proper cops. They don't need more cops they need real cops. But I digress, couldn't ever happen, TIT.

[whybother]

It is a tiny bandage for a gaping wound and I believe it was like this prior to Thaksin taking office. And why wouldn't be ? The pay is horrendous. Police work gets in the way of making a living.

Of course it was like that before Thaksin took office. Where do you think he started with his corruption?

[BSJ]

So have they considered the cost of training the conscripted recruits for the 2 years they are police? That would have to run into thousands of baht per recruit. And who buys the equipment the recruit needs? Uniform, gun, bullets, helmet.....I am guessing the recruits aren't going to!

[Pinot]

New recruits were bribing to get into police in lucrative Phuket. I don't know the current status. I know all the bars still pay them off every month.

I don't understand why there are so many cops! And they seem to have a very low presence.

What the hell do they do all day? They certainly aren't doing any traffic enforcement. No one is ever stopped in a moving vehicle.

Can you imagine handing over weapons to a conscripted police force of poorly trained young Thai men? That's scary.

[GuyL]

The new national police chief, Somyot Poompanmoung, is believed to be close to the junta after impressing military chiefs with his handling of anti-coup protests in the wake of the army power grab.

And he can save any endangered pussy, which is what matters the most in this country, isn't it?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/773722-kitty-rescued-from-lat-phrao-flattening-by-top-national-cop/

[konying]

I am sure if they removed 300000 baht bribes to get into force they would not be short of candidates

[EyesWideOpen]

People who come to Thailand are often confused. They see a Thai " policeman" in a uniform, and think he is like the police back in their home country. Who are in essence are tasked with stopping crime. The " police" in Thailand are much closer to tax collectors with a gun and who have extremely broad powers. The last thing in the world Thailand needs is more of these tax collectors.

Wait a minute. Maybe I am missing something here. If there are more tax collectors, that means more money can be stolen from the citizens, and sent up the ladder to police generals so they can buy another Ferrari....Ok now I understand why they want more " police"....

Edited November 4, 2014 by EyesWideOpen

[glasswort]

How will yearly conscripts improve the quality of the Royal Thai police force? I have no idea of the length of training required for police officers in the developed world but it has to be more than a year. Hence conscripts will not be trained in a year and therefore not capable of anything more than extorting money for minor traffic offences etc. So nothing changes.

[Cake Monster]

Are there only 230,000 Police Officers in Thailand ?, I thought that was the number for just Bangkok.

Thailand does not need any more Police Officers. What is desperately needed are less Police, who have been correctly screened, correctly trained, and will be paid a decent wage to do their job in a professional manner, instead of having interests outside of the force.

All of which needs to be over seen by non corrupt management.

[EnglishJohn]

I never heard anything so ridiculous. Conscription for the Army is understandable, but for the police ? no way.

Let's give random guys on the street the power of arrest and freedom to do much as they please under police protection.

It needs dedicated, well paid officers who are carefully selected and severely punished if they abuse their authority.

The majority of Thai people are simply not fit to be given this responsibility. I see their comments on here every day and despair for the country if they are actually given any power to act on their misguided ethics.

[The Deerhunter]

There is no shortage. The UK has 140,000 police officers. Thailand has a similar population size and has 230,000 and many more thousands police volunteers. They still do a far worse job.

What there is here is very inefficient use of police and some sort of hidden agenda. I am not sure what it is. A draft offers lots of graft opportunities. A draft may reduce the salary bill. Conscripts can be used to do the jobs others don't want to do since they cannot leave.

Probably as someone suggested, too many inactive posts, but for a different reason from the many recent "inactive posts". I am betting the RTP has the same "problem" as the RTA with too many officers because of favoritism or payback promotions which means too many chiefs & not enough "indians". Does Briggsy also know the comparative stats on ranked police officers as opposed to front-line staff between the two countries? If there is a problem here then the obvious solution would be to retire some of them with some form of redundancy package & increase pay & training to the remainder to increase efficiency, and help wind down the corruption.

But if that worked in the RTP, then why not the TRA? But wait, what am I thinking here?

[Thailand]

And they can all have new guns as well as the 2700 "volunteers" from the south.

I wonder who the supplier of all the guns being dished out is?

[klauskunkel]

The cabinet has already agreed "in principle" to conscript 5-10,000 men -- aged 21 -- annually across the country

Sweeten the pie and make them all Generals...can't have enough of that...

[Carrerakiss]

Quite clearly proper pay, equipment and training are the key to a motivated professional police force. How hard is that to understand?

Also, how sad that the Juntas reform of the police force is described as eliminating or transferring Thaksin loyal officers. I realise there is a political agenda to everything the Junta does, but so much more needs to be done beyond simply getting rid of Thaksinites. The police force pre Thaksin was hardly a good one, and post Thaksin is no better.

[PEAP]

I agree with Konying, Post #16 regarding the necessary "Fee" that is currently suggested as a "guaranteed" position with the annual recruitment. Why is this "Fee" supposed to attract the correct candidate who is obviously needed to improve the whole structure?

[BarnicaleBob]

Many here have posted good suggestions about the police problem. What most do not understand is that the Royal Thai Police are set up much differently than police in Western countries.

When a Thai becomes a policeman here he has two levels at which he can enter into the service. One is to start as an enlisted police officer with no rank the other is to start out as a sub lieutenant the lowest rank of commissioned police officer. To be a commissioned officer one usually is required to have a college or university degree and it is that position that many pay a gratuity to someone high up to obtain where as an enlisted police officer need not pay.

There in lays the problem. Commissioned offers do not start at the bottom as enlisted policemen and never really get the opportunity to work at that level. Whereas in the West almost all police officers start at the bottom and work their way up which gives them a broader base of experience and knowledge.

In conclusion the whole system needs to change. Every officer must start at the bottom and work their way up obtaining additional training as they prepare to advance. Then promotions will be based upon experience, time in service, education, performance evaluations and promotional exams.

In making this change the Royal Thai Police force would find their police officers to be more capable of taking on greater responsibilities and policing much more efficiently thus requiring fewer police officers to get the job done.

They will never be a truly professional force until they make these changes and increase the base pay and training.

Edited November 4, 2014 by BarnicaleBob

[Briggsy]

Posters need to know the Thai police force has a military structure with Commissioned Officers and lower ranks, with very few coming across the class divide. So you either come in as a grunt or come in as an officer and the latter is restricted to those with cash and connections. Commissioned Officers come through police college.

Conscripts would, of course, enter at the lowest level of cadet or some newly-created conscript rank even lower. The chances of them making the lowest level of Commissioned Officer, sub-lieutenant are about 0.0000000001%. Since conscripts would never make CO ranks, this conscription would have no effect on the composition of police management.

[JOC]

<The new national police chief, Somyot Poompanmoung, is believed to be close to the junta after impressing military chiefs with his handling of anti-coup protests in the wake of the army power grab.

He has vowed a harsh crackdown on police corruption.> Quote

Then please tell us Mr Shinning Knight, how you could afford to buy shares last week for 360 million baht (way above the combined declared assets of you and your wife) ??

Was the murder of the two young Brits on Koh Tao, merely considered an inconvenience because it restricted the cashflow??

[BestBitterPhuket]

They should put young professional soldiers in the police for a period of a few years each. They have a different training and discipline and would probably strengthen the police by their mere presence.

[ginjag]

<The new national police chief, Somyot Poompanmoung, is believed to be close to the junta after impressing military chiefs with his handling of anti-coup protests in the wake of the army power grab.

He has vowed a harsh crackdown on police corruption.> Quote

Then please tell us Mr Shinning Knight, how you could afford to buy shares last week for 360 million baht (way above the combined declared assets of you and your wife) ??

Was the murder of the two young Brits on Koh Tao, merely considered an inconvenience because it restricted the cashflow??

Please reveal, let us see what you come up with as (evidence)