Former top cops upset over police reform bill

Former police chief Pracha Promnok said reassigning the Royal Thai Police to the Justice Ministry was a step backward.

The force has performed well under the direct supervision of prime ministers since it became independent from the Interior Ministry in October 1998, he said.

"If the bullying gets too much, a petition might be lodged with His Majesty the King," he added.

The police chiefs will be supported by many police generals along with the Police Officers' Association (POA), the Retired Police Officers' Association and the Royal Police Cadet Academy's Association.

In a phone interview with The Nation, former deputy police chief General Salang Bunnag, now the POA chairman, simply cited the royal patronage extended by five kings to the police academy since its establishment in 1901 as the reason for it to still exist.

The bill states that the Royal Police Cadet Academy is not the sole institute to produce police officers of commissioned ranks.

"The people who propose scrapping the academy, who do they think they are?" he said.

Pol General Charnwut Watcharaphuk, who heads a police committee conducting a parallel study of the bill, said the government should put its version of the police bill on hold.

The government should also consider including conditions cited in his study in its version before it is forwarded to the Council of State for customary screening.

Acting national police chief Seripisut Temiyavej said he expected to see both the government's and Charnwut's versions be reviewed and integrated into the bill.

Seripisut said he agreed with many points of the government's version but it was too soon to implement the ones on decentralisation of police authority.

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation