Recently, there have been calls to reform the Royal Thai Police. These are mainly focused on organisational reform and misconduct. However, multiple aspects of police reform need to be considered.
One of the best-known police reforms that Thailand can learn from is the Australian state of New South Wales' reform from 1995-1997. It was given two simple tasks: Uncover the extent of police misconduct, then fix it, both systemically and humanistically. Crucially, a special vehicle was created for this, a Royal Commission.
The NSW Royal Commission focuses on process management and reporting. The main report provides 174 recommendations, covering policing responsibilities, long-terms suggestions for transforming the NSW Police, the complaints and discipline system, civilian advisory councils, internal witness support programmes, integrity measures in both criminal investigations and incidents of service, and so on.
Seven challenges were identified: leadership, direction, openness, staff, police education and training, the police associations, and change management. The reform process was designed to tackle these and can be applied to the Thai situation. Below are key recommendations.
It can be universally agreed that the police have great powers and responsibilities and must reciprocate the public trust through impartiality, integrity and performance. In addition, community needs and service standards must be met by reducing bureaucracy and keeping the best police on the front line. As such, the concept of professionalism can be adopted as being necessary to create, over time, a culture of zero tolerance for misconduct.
The concept of professionalism also means implementing objective standards for promoting the best available officers, replacing or retraining the less effective, and asking those not committed to professionalism to leave the service.
Regarding the police's public service charter, a revised charter could show greater clarity, a strategic direction, a description of core roles, and the establishment of performance standards. Problem-solving policing should be advocated, including the concept of enrolling the community as an ally through civilian advisory councils. In addition, a new code of conduct and ethics should be produced, together with related training.
A flattened structure should be a goal, achievable by reducing the number of leadership positions. This requires the reviewing of job descriptions and management structures as well as the reduction of decision-making steps and the transfer of non-sensitive tasks to civilians. This returns police to the front line.
Also, cost-effective service delivery should be emphasised by increasing both the capacity and performance of leader-driven patrols. Furthermore, positions, responsibilities and skillsets should be key factors for remuneration rather than rank, and officers should be laterally developed to acquire multiple skillsets.
This area may necessitate the departure or retraining of senior staff. On this issue, the NSW Royal Commission took the humanistic viewpoint that those retiring should be appropriately compensated and their service to the force be honoured as being suitable for the services provided.
In terms of openness, the police need to be transparent about both its resources and problems, with the government and with the public. This can be achieved by public reporting of what can and can not be done and how resources — based on how to meet needs rather than numbers of officers — are allocated.
Complaints and internal audits must be welcomed as performance improvement tools. This requires the balanced monitoring of internal controls and the development of a complaints procedure that treats both sides as human beings as well as an internal audit process that focuses on problem solving rather than disciplining.
The overall aim must be to increase the levels of honesty, improve two-way communication and develop a recognition of expertise above rank.
Regarding systems and procedures, all regulations, procedures and systems must be reviewed. The overall aims must be to clarify the objectives and user needs in order to build misconduct out of the system, as well as to simplify and make them more pragmatic. The use of an information-based management system can reduce paperwork and aid intelligence mining as well as the coordinating of investigations.
Turning to police culture, core culture and group loyalty are potential assets, capable of delivering great good. Enhancing the core culture's natural camaraderie and mutual support can be achieved by abandoning the negative aspects: namely, the code of silence, the tradition of long lunches, the mystique enjoyed by elite squads such as detectives, power — rather than professionalism-driven networks — and the low level of respect for outsiders, including criminals.
Academic studies and reports on police reform in both developed countries and countries in transition have proven these negative aspects can be eradicated by developing integrity and professionalism. In addition to benefits to the level of service of the police, individual job satisfaction will increase, as will security and personal confidence.
Complaints processes should focus more on reforming behaviour rather than punishing and not be too legalistic, long and formal. Instead, they should be opportunities to improve. A managerial approach focusing on addressing systemic problems rather than on individual incidents should be adopted.
The result would be greater empowerment, the introduction of a remedial instead of punitive model, and the opportunity to retrain a colleague rather than lose them. For serious misconduct, joint action by a heavily-resourced external commission and Office of Internal Affairs, with exhaustive and technology-enabled investigations, should be implemented.
The NSW police reform process, regarded as one of the most comprehensive and successful in the world, focused heavily on systemic change management. Change was provided by small leadership units, and it was recognised that several years would be needed. Change was achieved by listening to external opinions, utilising the enthusiasm of officers, overcoming resistance, and introducing a modern management system. External audit was continually employed. The whole effort was developed in clear, achievable systematic stages.
Today, in New South Wales, corruption is seen through the lens of an Occupational Health and Safety framework. It is recognised as a health risk, to the individual, to the force and to the public. As such, training now focuses on helping individual police officers and the force manage this risk. The NSW experience is an enlightened and worthy model to study.
Peerasit Kamnuansilpa, PhD, is founder and former dean of the College of Local Administration at Khon Kaen University. John Draper is project officer, Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalisation Programme, College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University.