The justice reform panel under the National Reform Council (NRC) has come up with a proposal to kick-start police reform by separating inquiry work from the police force.
According to the panel, separation of inquiry work from the Royal Thai Police is necessary. The NRC panel has also suggested the transfer of police inquiry officials to an independent body yet. The body has yet to be set up.
With the exception of a few police inquiry officials, the majority of police officers in the Royal Thai Police, from top to bottom, are up in arms against this structural change.
The reason for the resistance is simple and understandable: The Royal Thai Police will lose substantial power if inquiry work is no longer its responsibility.
The main work of the police force is divided into two parts: first, prevention and suppression of crimes, and secondly, inquiry work, which involves interrogation of suspects, collection of evidence and, occasionally, with some investigative work, processing the cases to be forwarded to public prosecutors.
Proponents of reform have argued that police inquiry work is an area most vulnerable to abuses and interference. There have been countless cases where suspects were allowed to walk free or received lenient sentences simply because the inquiry work was compromised for reasons already well-known to most of us.
Take for example the case of Vorayuth Yoovidhya, the son of an energy drink tycoon, who in 2012 ran over a traffic policeman on Sukhumvit Road then fled the scene, dragging the officer's body behind him. He was charged with reckless driving, but the charge was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.
The war on drugs during the Thaksin administration also led to extra-judicial killings of more than 2,500 drug suspects. Not a single policeman has been arrested, let alone prosecuted.
Effective investigation work is key to successfully nailing criminal suspects. With a water-tight case, there is a good chance the suspect will be convicted. If the enquiry work is compromised, the case might be turned down by prosecutors, or dismissed later in court for insufficient evidence, allowing the suspects to walk free.
The Royal Thai Police Office has argued that taking away inquiry work would damage the morale of the police force. It has also maintained that investigative and inquiry work is inseparable.
Though reform is necessary, a key question is whether the public will benefit if inquiry work is taken away from police, and whether the work will be less vulnerable to outside interference if it comes under a separate, independent entity.
There is no clear answer to this question, although history suggests changes are more often than not beneficial. Several works formerly under the police have already been transferred to other agencies. Car registration and forensic work, for example. Transnational crime and complicated and influential criminal cases are now under the jurisdiction of the Department of Special Investigation.
Experiences from other countries should not be dismissed. Police investigation work in many countries goes hand-in-hand with prosecutors. This provides checks and balances and saves time.
With over 200,000 men under its command, the Royal Thai Police is a huge, clumsy and corruption-ridden organisation. Reform is essential if public trust and confidence are to be restored.