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Earlier this week the Bangkok Metropolitan Police launched a new unit aimed at taking a bite out of crime. The outfit is billed as a rapid deployment unit that will not only serve as a deterrent to criminals but, as the name suggests, get to crime scenes in a timely fashion.

Bangkok police spent weeks promoting the unit before it was officially launched over the weekend at the Victory Monument. As expected, there was lots of hoopla - with popular comedian Mum Jokmok at the scene to help Bangkok's finest with their event. While it is understandable that the police want to maximise the publicity from the launch, no one seems to understand what message they were trying to put across by asking Khun Mum to the party.

The new unit was the brainchild of some senior police officers who went abroad on a so-called working visit and liked what they saw - tough-looking cops wearing shades and riding big motorcycles. They were packing some heavy firepower, too. Whoop-dee-doo!

On a recent morning television talk show, one of the officers admitted he was impressed by the way the foreign cops looked, and thus, the birth of the rapid deployment unit. He said this will scare crooks away. If crooks see these tough cops strolling down the street, surely they will get cold feet and crimes will be prevented.

How a senior law enforcement official can come up with such a vision is beyond many of us in this newsroom. If anything, it reflects the sad reality of the current state of the police force and the shallow mindset of some security bigwigs.

To begin with, all the things he described - reacting to crime quickly, patrolling the streets, looking tough but respectable - are the very things that regular police units should be doing anyway.

If this is all that senior cops can draw from their expensive visits abroad, perhaps one Hollywood movie could do the job instead. Why waste taxpayers' money on these kind of junkets?

The sad reality is that Thailand's police force has not been a source of comfort for the general public, and the latest example of this was the failure to contain demonstrators at the Asean Summit in Pattaya.

The police have not lived up to the mandate given to them by the public and they have failed to deliver the services that we the public are entitled to.

Like in any entity or organisation, if the product does not satisfy the customer, then somebody has to take the heat. The question for the Thai police force is where to start. In US cities, for example, the police force is answerable to the mayor of that city. This explains why crime is a big issue in any mayoral election.

During the Surayud Chulanont government there was talk of adding a civilian layer to the police force to strengthen accountability and provide a channel for public participation. It was a good idea that was vigorously resisted by senior officers.

While there should be more discussion on the idea of reforming the police force, how about starting with something that Thailand's finest can do by themselves? Important notions such as professionalism, accountability to the public and social activities within communities are some of the things that police officers could be striving for while the policy-makers debate reform.

Like it or not, the public tends to associate the police with corruption and extortion, not law enforcement, and much less a source of security and comfort. A quick glance around the city, and there are plenty of examples. We see the police set up checkpoints to issue tickets to drivers and motorbike riders without proper documents or helmets. Are these the only times they can catch traffic offenders? How about going after the lunatics who speed down dark sois without their headlights on?

In Mum Jokmok's movie, as in most Thai soap operas, the Thai police are portrayed as heroes even though they hardly ever arrive at the crime scene in good time. Indeed, it's easier to romanticise about good and respectable law enforcement than to confront reality. In real life, we know that a significant number of police officers extort people for a living, be they motorbike taxi drivers, prostitutes or vendors selling counterfeit goods.

The recent mass demonstrations in Thai cities between the warring political sides have illustrated that the police do not cut the mustard, thus the need to bring in the Army to control rowdy gatherings. Some senior police officers have even admitted that they are not quite sure of the standard operating procedure, or how far they can go in terms of using force, when dealing with such demonstrations.

Perhaps if the police see themselves as part of a law enforcement entity within the justice system - as opposed to being an entity that goes wherever the political wind blows - they just might understand that the essence of professionalism has nothing to do with how big their motorbikes are or how cool their shades look.