Rogue police a major worry: Governor

PHUKET: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has accepted that there is a major problem in Phuket with police officers engaging in criminal activities, and has called for a change in the system that encourages such activities. He told the Gazette that reports of police officers selling narcotics were particularly worrying. “It seems to me the number of reports is rising every day. I’m very worried about it. The one consolation is that I strongly believe that none of the top police officers is involved in crime.” He added that the problem of police officers engaging in criminal activities is difficult to solve because of the organizational system, which does not allow senior officers to fire policemen caught breaking the law. They must wait instead for authority from Bangkok to do so. “Those involved in crime are usually officers who have been in the Phuket police for a long time. There are, of course, both good and bad officers. Some of them may think that there’s no point in upholding the law when they never get any rewards. This may be the reason why these people choose to break the rules. “Another reason is the low salaries and poor benefits, which result in police officers being tempted to find ways to augment their incomes,” he added. “It’s a hard problem to solve. If we want to solve it, we have to change the whole system.”