An imaginative policewoman has found an inspired way to ease the workload of her colleagues by encouraging people who want police advice to go to a Facebook page instead of a police station.
For two months, the 'Muad Ka', or @talkwithpolicegirl, page on Facebook has been in operation, drawing more than 123,000 followers.
The number has been a big surprise to Pol Lt Sirirat Piankaew, who wrote the page with the intention of giving out legal advice and notifying of legal risks instead of seeing people going to police stations to talk to officers.
That is reflected in her slogan on the page: "I can give you the answer. No need to go to a police station."
"My first idea," she said, "was to post police officers in cartoon. But on second thought, I decided I should do something more meaningful. So I created a page with information because many people go to police stations to ask for legal advice. That can be explained on the page," she told the Post Today's @Weekly magazine.
The real officer, Pol Lt Sirirat Piankaew, who runs the 'Muad Ka' Facebook page. (Post Today photo)
Her topics were picked from requests from followers of the page or from issues that are big topics on social media.
One was about the penalty for slapping someone's face. Some people thought that the offence drew a penalty of only 500 baht at a police station. But under the amended law, she said, the fine is increased to 10,000 baht with a one-month jail term.
"You could face a libel charge and that comes with the maximum jail term of two years and the maximum fine of 200,000 baht," she wrote. "In addition to that, you could violate the Computer Crime Act."
"If you hate someone, you'd better write your hate message on a piece of paper and throw it in the trash bin," she suggested.
'Muad Ka' is not the first Facebook page to offer such information from police officers. Other officers who are more senior than her have done that, but Pol Lt Siriwat believes there were two things that probably make her site more popular.
Her message are written in informal style with cartoons drawn by herself to make it attractive, said Pol Lt Siriwat, who was among the first group of female officers to graduate from the Royal Police Cadet Academy.
Her official position is at Muang police station in Ratchaburi, but she has been assigned to work for a team under assistant national police chief Pol Lt Gen Suwira Songmetta at the headquarters in Bangkok.
Not all comments to her page are serious as some people tease her, like asking for her personal phone number. Here was her answer:
"You can call me anytime at 191. Don't forget that."