The Royal Thai Police should have seen an image boost after so quickly rounding up seven policemen accused of killing a drug suspect in custody. Unfortunately, the post-arrest press conference on Thursday night only served to reinforce the negative stereotypes that haunt Thai law enforcement.
The media huddle attended by the RTP top brass spoke volumes of a culture predicated on patronage and the questionable use of violence. It is shocking that the officer accused of bearing the most responsibility for the murder, Pol Col Thitisan Utthanaphon, was permitted to talk to the media via mobile phone.
Pol Col Thitisan, a former superintendent of Nakhon Sawan Muang Police Station, was allowed to use the press conference to promote his own version of events. Known as "Joe Ferrari" for his lavish lifestyle and ostentatious super-car collection, Pol Col Thitisan was given the all-clear by top brass to speak to the media and confess to the murder. He said he regretted the death, but justified his abhorrent treatment of suspects "as a means to an end" in the war against the illicit drug trade in local communities.
National police chief Gen Suwat Jangyodsuk can no longer tolerate such thinking. This case is not just about a rogue group of officers' dereliction of duty which resulted in an apparent homicide, but the outrageous human rights violations that have become part and parcel of Thai policing.
Yesterday, the RTP appointed the Criminal Investigation Bureau to handle the case instead of the local provincial police body as is protocol. The National Anti‑Corruption Commission will also look into the unusual wealth of Pol Col Thitisan. However, these token gestures don't go nearly far enough.
The national police chief owes the public transparency and should invite impartial justice experts, forensic scientists, legal scholars and, above all, human rights commissioners, to advise in the investigation. Rather than attempting to extricate Pol Col Thitisan from this nauseous affair, the RTP could use it as a launchpad for a top-down shakeup and send the message that it is respect for human rights rather than brutality that builds trust in communities.
It is hardly a secret that, at times, state officials have resorted to torture and other illegal interrogation processes. Historically, Thailand's men in uniform are notorious for their use of draconian measures while dispensing a brand of justice that has been known to embrace the beating, suffocation and even waterboarding of "bad guys" or "enemies" of the state.
Such standards only propagate the myth that violent acts are an acceptable part of policing -- and serve to deter the "good guys" from joining, thus creating a vicious circle.
Meting out justice and catching wrongdoers does not require stooping to the level of the criminals themselves. It requires expertise, professionalism and an even hand.
It is not too late to end this toxic culture, but police reform will take more than the frequent but clearly insincere lip-service paid to it by those in its higher echelons.
But reform, transparency and compliance with universal values such as human rights must come first.
Instead of giving Joe Ferrari a platform to justify murder, whether he is guilty or not, the RTP should take this chance to show the public it has the will, and enough decent officers at its core, to change for the greater good not just society, but its own standing in the eyes of the world.