Tourist-speak training for police

PHUKET TOWN: Island police are undergoing a brief course aimed at giving them the basics of tourist-speak in English and Japanese and advice on how to deal with other practical issues involving visitors. The Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, Pol Col Apirak Hongtong, told a seminar of 200 officers at the ST Plaza Hotel in Phuket Town today that Phuket was already noted for sea, sun and sand – and it was time to add service and security. Topics of the practical training sessions, organized by the Tourist Police, include security management, essential information to provide to tourists and methods of checking for suspicious foreigners entering Thailand. Course sessions began yesterday and more officers are being cycled through today and tomorrow. “Local police in each area and in every unit have to work together to ensure that tourists will feel safe under our security,” Col Apirak said. Pol Col Wichai Jaroenpong, Superintendent of Tourist Police Region 1, in Bangkok, said that more tourists were arriving now that the SARS crisis was over, especially in Phuket. That meant more attempts at fraud and the need for greater police vigilance.