Pol Maj Gen Roy Inkapairoj, commander of the Tourist Police Division, has plenty of plans and policies to ensure tourist safety. The 43-year-old was a commander of the Immigration Bureau before moving to the tourist division last year. He said his major focus is to protect and serve visitors to the best of his ability.
When asked about tourist-related criminal cases, Pol Maj Gen Roy said despite the public perception that it was high, the statistics showed otherwise.
"We have a key performance index which rates the number of court cases per year," he began. "The maximum rate should be 20 cases per 100,000 visitors, but the number of cases we have is a far cry from that ratio. Our statistics show [during the past five years] that the number of cases has reduced from 2.84 in 2008 to 1.24 in 2012. However, the record does not include issues that can be settled by both parties before going to the court process."
According to him, most of the serious cases have already been settled, while his team has stepped up measures to protect and serve guests in Thailand. He said suspects in pending cases are also on the verge of being caught because the police take their work seriously.
"The only case not to be solved since April of this year is the one involving the rape of a tourist in Koh Phangan. We are still searching for the suspect. For the rape case in Krabi, we already have a suspect and now it is in the court process," he said.
How does the job description for tourist police differ to officers working in other departments?
It is the same. But we support local police, especially in popular tourist areas. For example, in Pattaya there are about 400 police, out of which 40 are tourist police.
We segment areas to patrol, focusing more on walking street areas where crowds congregate. In Phuket, we oversee the area of Patong. In Chiang Mai, we focus on the popular night bazaar.
What are the basic qualifications for police to work in the tourist division?
They should be able to communicate with foreigners in English, have a service mind and basic knowledge of multiple cultures, and know how to contact embassies or consulates if something happens to tourists. We also work with the National Institute for Emergency Medicine if they need medical care.
Are there any women tourist police, and if so how many?
Of course, we have recruited policewomen. There are some cases, especially when victims are women, where an officer of the same gender can be helpful. Female police also care more about details. The 10% of women who work with us don't just work in the administration department, but work in the field. We also have female police assistants who are paid to work with us.
Tell us more about the volunteers who work closely with tourist police.
We have volunteers in many popular tourist cities such as Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai. They are residents and some of them are even ex-policemen or retired soldiers. They can help not only by communicating with foreigners who speak the same language, like Hungarian, for example. Apart from language, they also also help patrol with tourist police.
We have a training class for them. For those who want to be a volunteer, they just need to inform us. We run background checks on them before we accept them. We also have a uniform for them. They can volunteer as long as they like. We also have volunteers who are big bikers. They also help our work.
What is a typical day in your life as a tourist policeman?
In the morning, I need to check information through every medium, such as TV, internet or even Line [which is also used for sending reports among related authorities]. My work starts early in the morning and my routine includes meetings and sometimes visits to other tourist police stations up-country. Then at night I have to check for more work-related information before going to bed.
Tell us how you started the new Tourist Buddy app.
It started when we found buses and vans were operating illegally. There were many of them in Khao San Road. I like to warn tourists as well that there is no such thing as "good and cheap". For example, a ticket fare at 300 baht for a long trip does sound fishy. It is impossible. Criminal minds lower prices to attract tourists and later rob them of their belongings. So we urge tourists to take pictures of the bus or van they board, including pictures of the driver and bus boy and send them to our division if something bad happens to them.
Last month, we launched the first version of the app [which was officially launched at Suvarnabhumi airport during a festival]. The Tourist Buddy app can help tourists when they want to contact us.
Tell us about your plans to start a tourist databank.
In the future, we want to create a databank of tourists. We want them to register their names and passport numbers so that we will know where they are. The information will be kept confidentially. The service is just for their safety. If tourists think it is useful, then they should register. So when there is an accident, crime or when they get lost, we can quickly identify their location. We can also help contact their relatives or embassy right after we identify them.
You have two smartphones and an iPad on the table in front of you. You seem to be technologically savvy.
I like smartphone technology, I think it is really useful. I also want to encourage tourists to take pictures of anything suspicious and inform us through our website [www.thailandtouristpolice.com or the Facebook fan page www.facebook.com/call1155]. We also plan to work with Channel 9 to ask their audience to submit these kinds of pictures.
It is proactive prevention of crime. We are thinking about having rewards for those who submit pictures too.
Which projects do you plan to implement this year?
I will launch a bike patrol project. Biking is not only good for exercise, it also allows policemen to be close to locals. We plan to introduce the project in Ayutthaya where police can patrol in the old quarter with bikes like visitors do.
In addition, we will have an RV [recreational vehicle] mobile unit which we can park and patrol in areas of high density. For example, in Samui, the price of accommodation is very expensive so we can park the RV, which also contains two bikes. After parking, police can patrol around with their bikes. Initially, we will have four cars for this service.
We also plan to promote our call centre number 1155 more. We want to work with Thai Airways and have information in their planes so that tourists will know who to contact in case of emergency.
Any concluding words?
More and more foreign visitors will come to Thailand for travelling or for using Thailand as a base to commit crimes. I can say that the tourist police are 100% ready to take care of visitors. The safety of tourists is the most important thing we are concerned about. We work hard every day. Although the number of tourists increased from 19 million to 22 million last year, the number of tourist police is still the same _ about 800 officers nationwide. We always take our duty seriously and Thailand is not a paradise for bad tourists.
