Royal Thai Police to get new facelift

[Don Aleman]

Normally I'd scoff at the promises made in the last paragraph but, this time, considering the officers just charged with serious crimes, he just might follow thru so I wish him well !

[smellthecoffee]

One must really pass over this as nonsense really.

They are not fooling anyone but themselves.

[surangw]

does this mean they will disband the royal thai police to accomplish this ?

[BestBitterPhuket]

Promising! We have to accept that many of the old police got away with it, but what is important is that what happens in the future. Arresting a few big fish and parading them in front of cameras and taking their assets, is a good deterrent, I am keeping my fingers crossed. The police is the organization that needs the most cleaning up of all.

[englishoak]

No matter how many times the old BS is said about crackdowns and change its always rubbish, a little showcase as an example or a few days enforcing something before returning to apathy.

There are always a few gullible noobs to swallow the same old pantomime, some even swallow it over and over again ,lol

Meanwhile back in the real world................

Dont get me wrong, every thieving corrupt scumbag exposed deserves no sympathy but please dont take these well rehearsed pantomimes of change too literally.

All it means is its someone elses turn at the trough.

Edited November 25, 2014 by englishoak

[HeijoshinCool]

As long as it is LEGAL for the police to put up a large poster, which says:

Drunk Driving Fines:

Thai 5000 baht

Farang 20.000 baht

I won't believe in any cleanup.

PS. Of course I am against drunk driving, but the poster is real on the Dark Side in Pattaya-East.

Just wish I could get a photo of it and post here.

.

Please do. I'd love to have that for a website that is being designed right now.

Maybe have a Thai friend use a camera phone?

[Lex Talionis]

I am amazed that he is able to make a statement like that with a straight face.

As he is the head policeman of a organization that corrupt from the bottom

to the top, it would stand to reason he would be involved too. Pretty sure

his personal finances could not withstand a full investigative background check.

His stock market purchases on his government salary are pretty funny....

Now where did those hundreds of millions of baht come from again ????

Fire all the police, and start fresh. This is truly a tainted organization..

Yeah and what happens the day after they fire all the police? Get real man. The first step towards rooting out corruption is establishing an internal affairs division and giving it some real teeth. Second step hire an internationally respected law enforcement consulting firm to help establish a police Academy with an emphasis on teaching integrity. Start turning out a new generation of honest cops.

The project will take many years and will not be easy. But it's a decent start. Most important: Police the police.

(the cynics will say: yeah but who's going to police those that police the police? My answer? Why the TV detectives of course.)

[Mooner]

You can't polish a turd!

[wilcopops]

Well, Thailand IS the hub of plastic surgery....get rid of all that unwanted saggy skin and replace it with new saggy skin...

Edited November 25, 2014 by wilcopops

[quandow]

I couldn't read past the opening sentence - WHAT a CROCK!!!

[paymaster]

The problem here is classmates; all employed to cover each other's arse.

I remember a prob in the junior playground... when we were at war. We all made machine-gun noises that went, "D-na na na, D-na na na, D-na na na."

One day a new boy came, and he went, "K-chow, K-chow, K-chow", and just as we were getting into serious battle, the dinner lady all dressed in pink said, "Come on boys, inside, it's spittin'. It's spittin'. It's that rain that gets you wet through."

So we never got to the end of that war game, to see if he was on our side or not, but when summer came he had a bazooka sound, "K-boom, Kboom" and we all had to pretend to die.......

And the moral of that was....... I have no <deleted> idea.

A terrific example of the quality of 90% of poster comments on Thai Visa

Oh dear. Hoist by your own petard thrilla. You seem to have missed something.

[surangw]

You can't polish a turd!

you can still wrap in in a fancy wrapper, but its still a turd

[EyesWideOpen]

I am amazed that he is able to make a statement like that with a straight face.

As he is the head policeman of a organization that corrupt from the bottom

to the top, it would stand to reason he would be involved too. Pretty sure

his personal finances could not withstand a full investigative background check.

His stock market purchases on his government salary are pretty funny....

Now where did those hundreds of millions of baht come from again ????

Fire all the police, and start fresh. This is truly a tainted organization..

Yeah and what happens the day after they fire all the police? Get real man. The first step towards rooting out corruption is establishing an internal affairs division and giving it some real teeth. Second step hire an internationally respected law enforcement consulting firm to help establish a police Academy with an emphasis on teaching integrity. Start turning out a new generation of honest cops.

The project will take many years and will not be easy. But it's a decent start. Most important: Police the police.

(the cynics will say: yeah but who's going to police those that police the police? My answer? Why the TV detectives of course.)

Actually there is already a perfect model for that. Due to corruption, 90% of the Georgian police force were fired. And crime went down..... Just like Thailand, the police force there were heavily involved in committing crime. :-)

http://awesomefacts.quora.com/The-nation-of-Georgia-fired-it-entire-traffic-police-force-and-the-Crime-went-down

"Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had noticed a distinct level of corruption among his country's traffic police officers, and to be honest, he wasn't very pleased with it. In 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili threatened all traffic police officers, whether new recruits, or seasoned veterans, that they would be instantly fired if they were caught taking a bribe from citizens, or abusing their power in any way.

The cops assumed the President was bluffing, and the next day, over 15,000 cops were caught taking bribes from citizens. As promised, the President fired all of them. In the following days after that, another 15,000 cops were fired for abusing their power. The country had no police force at this point.

In fact, the country had no police force for the next 3 months! So, was there rioting and unprecedented levels of crime? Nope! As it turns out, the crime rate actually lowered, and the country was better off without cops than it was WITH cops! Apparently the cops were the reason for most of the problems and crime in the first place!"

[Strangebrew]

If your serious about cleaning up this mess And I mean real serious You need to hire foreign Police to come here and run every swing D-ck through a lie detector test done by these foreign police. Those found either lying or corrupt sent to prison to a wait charges and trial for there crimes. No in active posts crapola. And no one gets pass on test those that refuse or run get hunted down. All ill got gains stripped from them and there families and that includes benefits. Those found to have committed murders executed. Once this is done then the people will see just how serious you are. once the cull is done a civilian review board needs to be setup to watch over the police and all complaints run through review board. If officers get accused of asking for or taking bribes or making false arrests, for there own gain They get removed from duty unpaid till till proven otherwise. If innocent they get back pay and accuser gets charged with filing false report.

[lvr181]

Facelift when a lobotomy is required!

'

A lobotomy! Personally I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. Ok, just a little "off topic" light humour.

But it is good that the new police chief is thinking along the right lines, I just hope that he does not get isolated in his quest, by other entrenched interests.

[CWMcMurray]

This is a very good thing if the follow through and commitment is there.

Let's wait and see before complaining on this this one...

As this is the root of the nearly all corruption problems...

If the Police are cleaned up and a real law enforce my agency , then presumably they will also enforce the laws against other corrupt people and agencies.

This is the first step in a long and difficult road to cleaning up the country

The initial arrests should be enough for folks to stop the complaining and be willing to give this guy a chance.

As he is talking the talk and has already made some high profile arrests

Let's hope he continues

[EPICFAIL]

Corrupt Thai policemen make the other five percent look bad.

[joebrown]

The government would have to truly be willing to commit $500 billion perhaps $1 trillion to bringing any meaningful reforms of the Thai Police Department. Extensive overseas training, extensive training with experts from all over the world, extensive forensic equipment, world class crime labs with world.class equipment, massive retraining of staff and most important of all substantial raises in the salaries, to the point where the average policeman can live comfortably, support his family and not have to bribe innocents, for a silly gesture in order for the policeman to survive. Anything less is pure jawboning.

Far less expensive to bring in foreign experts than to do training overseas.

Salaries certainly do need to increase.

The major issue is changing the culture inside the police to one that supports whistle blowing instead of punishing it.

(aside) this story is not about Koh Tao.

By this comment you're saying there can't possibly be any form of RTP corruption on KT, but there is everywhere else in LOS? IMHO this 'facelift' is part of the smokescreen to deflect media attention away from KT.

[jdinasia]

The government would have to truly be willing to commit $500 billion perhaps $1 trillion to bringing any meaningful reforms of the Thai Police Department. Extensive overseas training, extensive training with experts from all over the world, extensive forensic equipment, world class crime labs with world.class equipment, massive retraining of staff and most important of all substantial raises in the salaries, to the point where the average policeman can live comfortably, support his family and not have to bribe innocents, for a silly gesture in order for the policeman to survive. Anything less is pure jawboning.

Far less expensive to bring in foreign experts than to do training overseas.

Salaries certainly do need to increase.

The major issue is changing the culture inside the police to one that supports whistle blowing instead of punishing it.

(aside) this story is not about Koh Tao.

By this comment you're saying there can't possibly be any form of RTP corruption on KT, but there is everywhere else in LOS? IMHO this 'facelift' is part of the smokescreen to deflect media attention away from KT.

No, if I had said that; that is what it would say.

The story itself is what it is.

The idea that it relates to Koh Tao is ludicrous.

[Si Thea01]

I had a mini-confrontation with an RTP in town today. Parked on a city street. There was no red & white paint on the curb, no fire hydrant, etc. a cop started strolling towards my car. I stopped and looked at him. He acted evasive, wouldn't look at me, turned sideways (we were about 7 meters apart.) I went and did a quick errand. When I returned, there was a ticket on my windshield. It was only 200 baht, and I paid it at the local station, but I lightly berated the cop for pretending not to notice me, while I stopped and looked squarely at him for about 12 seconds, right after I parked. It turns out there were a few dirty white lines, 1 meter long and almost same color as the dark gray pavement at the place I parked (motorcycle parking). It was essentially entrapment. It was a small deal, so I'm not going to fret about it. I've seen other cars park there at all hours and not get ticketed, but they're late-model, and they leave a turn signal flashing. And they're Thai drivers and I'm farang, so those are probably the petty reasons I got ticketed, and others didn't.

It's good to see you are only judging it as a small deal and are not turning it into a bigger production then Quo Vardis. Have you tried to the old adage of "When in Rome" And before anyone gives me a Latin lesson I know that it means "Where are you going." Just comparing the length of the film to the post.

[pomchop]

I go through a police checkpoint several times a week in Chiang Rai. It's at a popular intersection where they wave mostly motorbikes over for a check of documents or no helmet etc. I sit and watch what happens and have to say I have NEVER one time seen any money change hands...either they let them go or they give them a written ticket. Yesterday they actually stopped one motorbike for going wrong way in a lane and gave him a ticket....amazing.

OF COURSE I am not saying for one second that all CR police aren't involved in some nefarious activities but there are some instances when they at least seem to operate by the book.

[harrry]

Whilst it is true that corruption has always existed with the Thai Police (and probably allways will) I think the scale of it has grown enormously. It has changed from a "court diversionary" system similar in some ways to the on the spot tickets given by foreign police which enable a person to pay a lower penalty immediately without going to court which used to be used as payments to run the police force to a system which enables those in the right places to gain huge wealth and has led to the stage where many crimes are actually ran by the police themselves.

Even if only a few get prosecuted as these are being I am sure that there will be a large scale reduction in such over the top practices as a result.

Edited November 26, 2014 by harrry

[Si Thea01]

The government would have to truly be willing to commit $500 billion perhaps $1 trillion to bringing any meaningful reforms of the Thai Police Department. Extensive overseas training, extensive training with experts from all over the world, extensive forensic equipment, world class crime labs with world.class equipment, massive retraining of staff and most important of all substantial raises in the salaries, to the point where the average policeman can live comfortably, support his family and not have to bribe innocents, for a silly gesture in order for the policeman to survive. Anything less is pure jawboning.

Far less expensive to bring in foreign experts than to do training overseas.

Salaries certainly do need to increase.

The major issue is changing the culture inside the police to one that supports whistle blowing instead of punishing it.

(aside) this story is not about Koh Tao.

By this comment you're saying there can't possibly be any form of RTP corruption on KT, but there is everywhere else in LOS? IMHO this 'facelift' is part of the smokescreen to deflect media attention away from KT.

No, if I had said that; that is what it would say.

The story itself is what it is.

The idea that it relates to Koh Tao is ludicrous.

You are so right. No matter what the post is about, there are those who cannot stay on the actual subject and must deviate to stay in line with the rest of the posters who seem to have trouble finding anything positive to say.

[2fishin2]

I go through a police checkpoint several times a week in Chiang Rai. It's at a popular intersection where they wave mostly motorbikes over for a check of documents or no helmet etc. I sit and watch what happens and have to say I have NEVER one time seen any money change hands...either they let them go or they give them a written ticket. Yesterday they actually stopped one motorbike for going wrong way in a lane and gave him a ticket....amazing.

OF COURSE I am not saying for one second that all CR police aren't involved in some nefarious activities but there are some instances when they at least seem to operate by the book.

Drove through a checkpoint in phuket this week. Cops not writing tickets just taking the 200 baht from people for no helmets....same same

[Benmart]

The problem here is classmates; all employed to cover each other's arse.

I remember a prob in the junior playground... when we were at war. We all made machine-gun noises that went, "D-na na na, D-na na na, D-na na na."

One day a new boy came, and he went, "K-chow, K-chow, K-chow", and just as we were getting into serious battle, the dinner lady all dressed in pink said, "Come on boys, inside, it's spittin'. It's spittin'. It's that rain that gets you wet through."

So we never got to the end of that war game, to see if he was on our side or not, but when summer came he had a bazooka sound, "K-boom, Kboom" and we all had to pretend to die.......

And the moral of that was....... I have no <deleted> idea.

A terrific example of the quality of 90% of poster comments on Thai Visa

What is quality? Data and research please.

[wilcopops]

Facelift..??

Needs amputations!

TiT - face is more important than the body behind it.

[wilcopops]

You can weed out corruption til the cows come home.... But until you radically review the role and responsibilities of the police in society the situation will remain the same fertile garden for further corruption.

So long as the army is a political power and the police behave as if they are the judiciary then nothing will change.

Edited November 26, 2014 by wilcopops

[joebrown]

The government would have to truly be willing to commit $500 billion perhaps $1 trillion to bringing any meaningful reforms of the Thai Police Department. Extensive overseas training, extensive training with experts from all over the world, extensive forensic equipment, world class crime labs with world.class equipment, massive retraining of staff and most important of all substantial raises in the salaries, to the point where the average policeman can live comfortably, support his family and not have to bribe innocents, for a silly gesture in order for the policeman to survive. Anything less is pure jawboning.

Far less expensive to bring in foreign experts than to do training overseas.

Salaries certainly do need to increase.

The major issue is changing the culture inside the police to one that supports whistle blowing instead of punishing it.

(aside) this story is not about Koh Tao.

By this comment you're saying there can't possibly be any form of RTP corruption on KT, but there is everywhere else in LOS? IMHO this 'facelift' is part of the smokescreen to deflect media attention away from KT.

No, if I had said that; that is what it would say.

The story itself is what it is.

The idea that it relates to Koh Tao is ludicrous.

So why did you have to make an aside reference to KT then, in a thread that IS about RTP corruption?

[jdinasia]

The government would have to truly be willing to commit $500 billion perhaps $1 trillion to bringing any meaningful reforms of the Thai Police Department. Extensive overseas training, extensive training with experts from all over the world, extensive forensic equipment, world class crime labs with world.class equipment, massive retraining of staff and most important of all substantial raises in the salaries, to the point where the average policeman can live comfortably, support his family and not have to bribe innocents, for a silly gesture in order for the policeman to survive. Anything less is pure jawboning.

Far less expensive to bring in foreign experts than to do training overseas.

Salaries certainly do need to increase.

The major issue is changing the culture inside the police to one that supports whistle blowing instead of punishing it.

(aside) this story is not about Koh Tao.

By this comment you're saying there can't possibly be any form of RTP corruption on KT, but there is everywhere else in LOS? IMHO this 'facelift' is part of the smokescreen to deflect media attention away from KT.

No, if I had said that; that is what it would say.

The story itself is what it is.

The idea that it relates to Koh Tao is ludicrous.

So why did you have to make an aside reference to KT then, in a thread that IS about RTP corruption?

Because Koh Tao was mentioned so many times by other people in the thread.

[petercool]

Post with messed up quotes removed.

Please try to avoid multiple nested quotes and please ensure you own comments are outside of any quotes.