Police step up festive season security

PATONG: Police will tonight launch a campaign to improve tourists’ safety over the festive season by beefing up the police presence on the street. The campaign will run until January 15. A task force of 100 officers, drawn from Phuket’s Tourist, Marine and Highway Police as well as officers from Kathu Police Station, will assemble at 8 pm tonight at the Baan Sukhothai Hotel on Soi Bangla, where Pol Col Wichai Jaroenpong, Superintendent of Tourist Police Region 1, in Bangkok, will stress the campaign’s importance to the officers. Pol Lt Col Supawat Sookjaroen, Inspector of Phuket’s Tourist Police, told the Gazette, “We have many tourists who come to Phuket for Christmas and New Year, and we want to make their stay as comfortable as possible. “Our main duty is care for tourists’ safety, and to protect them from robbers who might come to Phuket to prey on them,” he added.