3 Thai cops face 30 days jail for drinking on duty, abandoning posts

Three policemen at Mueang Kalasin Police Station in Isaan face 30 days in jail after one of them allegedly got drunk on duty while the two others went home to take a nap during working hours.

A Thai man took to TikTok to share a video of himself engaging in a conversation with a drunk police officer at Mueang Kalasin Police Station in the Isaan province of Kalasin. In the video, the Thai man was heard crying after police ignored his complaint. Another police officer later came to soothe him.

The video went viral, prompting Amarin TV reporters to interview the TikTok user about the incident. The man, who prefers his identity to be concealed, explained that a group of teenage boys attempted to break into the home he shares with his girlfriend at about 10pm.

The gang threatened to smash his car if he did not open the house for them, so he contacted police via the hotline number 191. Officers promised to investigate the scene within 30 minutes but no one appeared.

The man then called the police again and threatened to report their delay to the Royal Thai Police (RTP), prompting one officer to come to the scene. The teenagers had already left his home when the officer arrived. The officer urged him to file an official report at the police station, so he and his girlfriend did so.

The man explained that he waited at the police station for an hour but no officer came to record their complaint. He met one police officer who appeared drunk and asked him to take his complaint.

The drunk officer told him that the daily duty police officers, who recorded public complaints, had gone to a police station party. He could not take his complaint because it was not his duty.

Then, the drunk policeman gave him the phone numbers of the officers but he was unable to contact them. He felt desperate and cried, as seen in the video.

The commander of Kalasin Provincial Police, Treewit Sriprapa, later summoned the police officers who were on duty that night for questioning.

Two daily duty officers admitted to returning home to sleep while on duty, and the officer who appeared drunk in the video admitted to drinking alcohol before going to work. Their confessions led to a punishment of 30 days in prison.