Revamped police 'must be free'

Revamped police 'must be free'

The police should be divided into 11 entities and be supervised jointly by a national commander and a secretary-general, a seminar on restructuring of the force was told yesterday.

It is critical that the transformation involves public participation, and the revamped force must be free from the influence of political or capitalist powers or the monopoly of power by individual superiors, said Assoc Prof Sangsit Phiriyarangsan, chairman of a government restructuring panel.

Sangsit said the 11 entities, to be run by the national commander, will comprise a federal command that oversees the subordinate bodies similar to the existing Central Investigation Bureau, the Crime Suppression Division and the Special Branch, which handle support operations, special investigations and anti-crime intelligence, respectively.

Entities II to X will be similar to the existing Provincial Police Regions 1-9, supervised independently and be free central control. Entity XI will be similar to the existing Border Patrol Police Headquarters.

All 11 bodies will operate independently but can be consolidated by government order under certain circumstances, including emergencies, war and large-scale public disturbance, to cope with the situation, Sangsit told the seminar at Chulalongkorn University.

Sangsit said the military-style rank system should be abolished, or limited to the level of police colonel. The Royal Police Cadet Academy should stop admitting cadets with high-school diplomas and its curriculum would be revised or enhanced to provide instruction to cadets with bachelor's degrees.

An initial draft of the plan will be submitted for the prime minister's consideration by March. Sangsit said police and non-police members of his 25-man panel still had differing opinions on the top post of the revamped force - the former bloc agreeing that the commander and the secretary-general should be the same person while the latter disagreed.

Sangsit said an important mission statement of his task was that under the new structure, the public would be treated by police at the equivalent level to undergoing the justice process through public prosecutors and courts of justice.

Justice Ministry permanent secretary Charan Phakdithanakul said the police was now a massive force that submitted to five kinds of powers - political, superiors, bureaucratic, capital, and materialism, while becoming more distanced from the people and its core duty - to serve and protect them.

He said an independent internal affairs body should be set up to keep the new structure in check - a role similar to that of the National Counter Corruption Commission with the bureaucracy.

National Legislative Assembly member Kraisak Chonhavan, a guest speaker, said all laws that made the abuse of power easy by police needed to be amended.

Pol Lt-Colonel Chitphol Kanjanakij, a member of Sangsit's panel, believed the new structure could revolutionise how the police performed their duties, and commented that he did not want to see it as merely a cosmetic change.

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation
Friday January 12, 2007