Police reform in Thailand: Asset declarations, civilian oversight, the full gamut of police reforms needed

Discussions of police reform in Thailand never seem to go beyond structural issues such as who has promotion authority or whether the police force reports to the interior ministry or directly to the prime minister.

Arisa Ratanapinsiri's 2013 review article "A History of Police Reform in Thailand" provides an overview of this sort of reform effort up to present day.

One thing the review shows is that police resistance to reform typically leads to reform failure when the term of typically short-lived Thai governments expires. This common happens to most police reform efforts including the most recent reform after the 2006 coup (Arisa, 2013). 

Apparently repeating this historical pattern, in breaking news today (12/26/2015) Thailand's new draft constitution is said to "single out the police for reform" and the police have already launched efforts to defeat the move (see "Cops rip reform bid as discriminatory Charter drafters aim to downsize force," Bangkok Post, 26 Dec 2015, Mongkol Bangprapa here). 

FULL GAMUT OF POLICE REFORMS 

Unlike Thailand, police reform in many countries actually goes beyond merely restructuring lines of authority in the police bureaucracy. 

A recent review article on police reform in developing societies, Hope (2015), includes some reforms that seem so commonsensical one wonders why they have not been implemented already in Thailand.

1. Declarations of assets, property and liabilities together with lifestyle audits for even police officers low in the hierarchy could track unusual accumulations of wealth over the course of a career (see plans in the Philippines to adopt lifestyle audits here & here).

Recent declarations of wealth by Thailand's national police chief (necessarily combined with his wife's personal wealth as well) has ranged from 300 million to almost 1 billion baht. Questions naturally arise as to the source of this wealth. 

At the local level people, sometimes wonder how local police chiefs can sometimes afford multiple houses and expensive cars on rather paltry salaries.  

2. Use of civilian oversight institutions, particularly at the local level would also seem an essential police reform, perhaps going hand-in-hand with decentralization of authority. 

3. Good conduct recognition and rewards would seem to be at the heart of the issues surrounding the recent flight of lead investigator Pol Maj Gen Paween to Australia after being essentially punished for his success in arresting several well-connected military and government officials for involvement in human trafficking. 

4. Counteracting and managing conflicts of interest would also seem to be another essential police reform. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Arisa Ratanapinsiri. 2013."A History of Police Reform in Thailand." in Knights of the Realm: Thailand's Military and Police, Then and Now, Chambers, Paul (ed.). White Lotus Press, Bangkok. 499-540 (see book review here).

Hope, K. R. (2015). "An Analytical Perspective on Police Corruption and Police Reforms in Developing Societies," In K. R. Hope (Ed.), Police corruption and police reforms in developing societies (pp. 143-156). Boca Raton: CRC Press. (see here)

(Photo credits: Police Colours of the Royal Police Cadet Academy, Wikipedia)