Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas has been appointed as the new national police chief, replacing the outgoing Pol Gen Suwat Jongyodsuk, who is due to retire on Sept 30.
Pol Gen Damrongsak's appointment as the 13th national police chief was approved at a meeting of the Police Commission and the Royal Thai Police (RTP) board yesterday.
The RTP board unanimously approved the appointment even though he only has one year left to serve before his mandatory retirement in September next year.
Pol Gen Damrongsak is an alumni of Class 22 of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School and Class 38 at the Royal Police Cadet Academy (RPCA).
He later earned a master's degree in public administration in the United States, before completing a crowd control course at Tacoma Police Department. He also took part in the Pacific Training Initiative (PTI) of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
After graduating from the RPCA, he started out as a deputy chief of investigation at Phlapphla Chai police station in Bangkok.
He served as a deputy chief in the Patrol and Special Operations Division, as well as deputy chief of the Protection and Crowd Control Division, before he became Amnat Charoen's police commissioner.
After a stint in the provinces, he was appointed the commissioner of Metropolitan Police Division 2 in Bangkok. He returned to the provinces when he became deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Region 5 in the North.
After some time, he rose to become commissioner of Provincial Police Region 3 covering the lower northeastern provinces, during which he initiated anti-drug programmes in almost 1,500 villages. The scheme earned him national recognition and an award from the Narcotics Control Board.
Pol Gen Damrongsak also spearheaded another project to curb road carnage in in eight Northeastern provinces.
The programme was adopted by the RTP as a model for improving road safety.
During his time as deputy national police chief, he led the drive to modernise the RTP's approach to policing.