police

[robby hh]

I had heard many bad things about the Police in Thailand but till today had no official contact with them.

Somewhere in my travels in the last month I managed to lose my bank passbook so when I discovered it missing I went to bank here in HH to get a replacement only to be told I first had to report to the police that I had lost it and get a form from them.

I had all sorts of visions of a bad experience and wasn't looking forward to testing my bad Thai on this one.

When I got to the Police station, behing the information desk was a smiling lovely lady cop who spoke good english and was very helpful.
After a look at my passport and an old bankbook I had she filled in the required form and in about 5 minutes I was on my way back to the bank.
Cost for this service 20Baht.

Great service and a great lady to deal with, if anyone from the police reads this please once again pass on my greatful thanks.

I now have no trepidation about going to the police if I ever need their services.

Korp khun maak na krap
Robby

[Procyon]

A nice story robby, sadly not all dealings with the local cops are that smooth - especially when falangs are involved. Speaking the lingo helps but they still assume your a walking cash dispenser.

[tj]

Must admit that in 10 years have only had positive exposure to them. One time was held for 40 mins while paying a no helmet fine as they wanted to chat and have a laugh and to my amazment knew the name of my falang g/f who had only been there twice.
Just recently was pulled up between udon and khon khaen for speeding( we wer'nt). Gave the regulation 200bt donation and was told by the man in brown " thank you sir and by the way you are a very handsome man". Was speeding the rest of the way home hoping for a better compliment at the next road block but to no avail. . Only in Thailand!

[HHTel]

Good to hear some good stories about the police. Sadly, they're in the minority. In general, if you want to be a policeman in Thailand, first remove your brain.

Hua Hin has as many road deaths as in the whole of Ireland. They could be drastically reduced if the police would just enforce the existing laws.
Some time ago, I was stopped for what I thought was not wearing a helmet. (Very stupid of me as I usually do wear one.). "No" the policeman stated. "We're not doing helmets today, just licences".

If the police had some motivation (pay them a living wage) then deaths and bad driving could be greatly reduced.

[Norseman]

If the police had some motivation (pay them a living wage) then deaths and bad driving could be greatly reduced.

Spot on HHTel.
As simple as that!!

[Randy Cornhole]

Overall my experiences with the police have been pretty good, except once when I annoyed one by stopping to put my helmet on having forgot and he felt the need to whack me several times in the stomach with his baton!! luckily I have an ample belly area and so absorbed the blows....

[Glyn]

I once got stopped in Korat for jumping a red light, I disputed the fact which didn't make any difference, the officer still gave me a ticket to pay 400 baht. I know he was looking for a drink but I refused. I then sent the ticket to the authorities along with 200 baht. They then sent me back a receipt and that was the end of the matter. I preffered to pay the fine than give the officer the satisfaction of conning a farang.

[HHTel]

Of course, you do realise, Glyn, that whether you pay by the roadside or pay the ticket at the police station, then the cop that stopped you gets a percentage anyway.

[Procyon]

I have no problems with paying fines for genuine infringements or even paying double on the street to save the hassle of going to the cop shop.

The problem comes when there is an actual serious issue that demands police attention and they wont do their jobs or uphold the law unless someone pays them - this makes them as bad as the criminals in my book.

[ThaiStyle]

I had heard many bad things about the Police in Thailand but till today had no official contact with them.

Somewhere in my travels in the last month I managed to lose my bank passbook so when I discovered it missing I went to bank here in HH to get a replacement only to be told I first had to report to the police that I had lost it and get a form from them.

I had all sorts of visions of a bad experience and wasn't looking forward to testing my bad Thai on this one.

When I got to the Police station, behing the information desk was a smiling lovely lady cop who spoke good english and was very helpful.
After a look at my passport and an old bankbook I had she filled in the required form and in about 5 minutes I was on my way back to the bank.
Cost for this service 20Baht.

Great service and a great lady to deal with, if anyone from the police reads this please once again pass on my greatful thanks.

I now have no trepidation about going to the police if I ever need their services.

Korp khun maak na krap
Robby

The "lady cop" / policewoman, is my neighbour I'll tell her

[robby hh]

Thanks Thai style, I did really apprecieate her help.

Some thoughts
We as falang ar used to (where I come from anyway) a certain standard of service from a police force however we are probably judging by standards that may not apply in this country, there are factors that can influance the standards of a force such as the above mentioned renumeration.
Where I come from I believe the starting pay of a cop is over the equivelant of 700,000B PA, here, if what I read is correct they get less than 70,000 PA and have to provide their own firearm and if the varied means of transport is anything to go by, their own motorbike.

How much can we expect for that sort of pay? Policing is something that sometimes requires a body and sometimes life to be put on the line, would you do that for 5.5kb a month?
Then their is back-up, what have they got in the way of finger print or DNA databases, there dosen't appear to be a specialist plain clothes detective branch as in most falang countries and well.......

From what I see on TV the main means of getting a conviction seem to be confesion then recreate the crime scene.

Personaly I cant blame them for getting a few baht on the side, "400b with a receipt 100b without" probably a good deal for both sides.

[STEVE G]

I was stopped for speeding on the expressway heading south through Bangkok last week. This was actually quite amusing as I drove the whole way below the limit and was literally passed by every other vehicle on the road for about thirty minutes.
I leave my partner to do all the talking with the police and this time she refused to pay anything. The patrolman told her that the speed camera images were available at the station and if we didn’t go their within seven days there would be big trouble. She went to the station later, by herself and they laughed and assured her that there is no such camera on that stretch and even gave her some tips on avoiding the one’s that do exist, such as keeping out of the right hand lane where they are apparently aimed, and being careful northbound around Don Muang which is one of the ones that is regularly manned.
So I suppose that shows that there are good and bad Thai police.

[Hobiecat]

I got pulled over in BKK today and amazingly enough the cop accually let me go this time with out asking for coffee money. I was quite happy to go to the station and pay my 300 baht fine for making a incorrect lane change in an intersection. Should have known they got me there last month also. So far this year I think I've contributed 400 baht to the polices coffee fund in 4 different police stops. I usually don't give them anything but this year they had made each traffic stop very inconvienent for us and we were better off slipping then a few baht.

I'm trying to figure out how to get a mini cam stuck to my mirror so I can get a shot of my next contribution and then post it on the internet.

[barrys]

I don't want to divert from the thread but:

I honestly believe that much of the problem lies in lack of communication.

Procyon says that "Speaking the lingo helps"; I find this a gross understatement. Surely, if we are living here, the onus is on us to make ourselves understood in the language of our hosts and not vice versa.

Given the often stated inadequacies of the Thai education system with regard to language teaching/learning, in particular, it can hardly be fair to expect the Thai police or Thai people in general to be able to converse in any language other than their own.

I think the difficulties could be considerably diminished if those foreigners living here made just a little more effort to learn the rudiments of the Thai language and cultural interaction.

We often hear how those from English-speaking countries, in particular, as well as European countries complain about people going to live there who "cannot even speak the language".

Well, we are immigrants here, aren't we?

I'm sure that things would be a lot easier if we all made a little more effort to assimilate.

[redzonerocker]

an excellent observation, barrys