Phuket Town has “best police station in the South’

PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Town Police Station has won a special award for being the best police station in southern Thailand, beating 111 other police stations in the seven provinces that comprise Police Region 8. The citation came as part of a nationwide drive by the Ministry of Interior to improve police operations in Thailand. Police stations were evaluated on how clean their premises are; on improvements made to their premises; on how smoothly the traffic flows in their area; on their public relations, (particularly their crime awareness campaigns); on the rate of violent crime in their district; and on general management of officers and staff. Pol Col Chalit Thintanee, superintendent of the Phuket Town Police Station, said with delight that his officers had been concentrating on serving the public and taking care of traffic problems. “I am very proud of this award,” he said. “Everybody has been trying hard to serve the people of Phuket.” The citation indicates that Phuket Town Police Station has improved remarkably since an opinion poll two months ago. In the poll, conducted by the Phuket Alumni Club of the National Institute of Development Administration, the station emerged as the government office giving the second-worst level of service in Phuket, and respondents criticized officers for being threatening or venal. Clearly, action to rectify these problems has been extremely successful. Awards will be presented to Pol Col Chalit and the chiefs of other high ranking police stations at a ceremony in Bangkok on Police Day, October17.