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Published on July 4, 2007

The bill also proposes setting up a Police Policy Commission, with an opposition leader, the chairman of the Law Society of Thailand and the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission as members.

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, Justice Minister Charnchai Likhitjittha said the new structure would be supervised by the Justice Ministry, instead of by the prime minister - a practice that he said was currently prone to political interference and favouritism.

The bill also proposes setting up an independent complaint-receiving body that would deal with petitions from the public about police corruption or brutality. This would ensure that all the grievances would be directly heard and looked into.

Specific police divisions like the Marine Police, Railway Police, Forestry Police and Immigration Police would also be supervised by other government agencies directly responsible for each equivalent task.

Police officers will work in regions they originally serve and transferred only to positions in provinces under the same jurisdiction. Each of nine Provincial Police Regions will be headed by its own director-general, who would have independent authority in certain cases.

Charnchai said the bill would soon be vetted by the Council of State, and later be scrutinised by the National Legislative Assembly before being made into a new law. A bill regarding the complaint-receiving body is also going through the same procedure.

He said half of the planned reconstruction of the Royal Thai Police would be done after the two bills became law. The drafting of executive decrees and ministerial regulations to be used along with both bills would then follow and should be completed by October.

The move was later questioned by Pol General Charnwut Watcharaphuk, who heads a police committee conducting a parallel study into the bills. He said a police proposal was also submitted to the Cabinet two weeks ago, but was not even on the Cabinet meeting agenda.

The officer said the proposed conditions in the bills would make police work and public service even more difficult, and he expected that acting police chief Seripisut Temiyavej would propose that the bill be reviewed after he completes his inspection trip in the South.

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation