Put the brakes on rogue cops

The Royal Thai Police must crack down on the gang of rogue border patrol officers who allegedly extorted money from innocent people framed for crimes they did not commit and abducted others for ransom. Such criminal behaviour among the police rank and file is believed to be more widespread than meets the eye. The national police chief must see to it that none of these rogue officers - whose job it is to uphold the law, fight crime and protect citizens - escapes justice.

The evidence keeps piling up, as many victims of this criminal gang in police uniform have come forward to press charges against their tormentors.

These victims have until now been too afraid for their lives to report the crimes committed against them, including the alleged use of torture to extract confessions from them while they were held illegally and without charges.

Those who refused to pay ransoms, or were too poor to do so, were slapped with false accusations, unfairly prosecuted and some were wrongly convicted and had to serve jail terms.

What is staggering is how this Surat Thani-based crime syndicate, led by a police lieutenant-colonel, was capable of operating in their home province, as well as a few other southern provinces.

It may well be true that some of the victims are not exactly model citizens or people who have never had trouble with the law before, which made them vulnerable to false accusations levelled against them by corrupt officers.

But no one, not even those with prior criminal records, deserves to be subjected to police brutality or framed for crimes they did not commit. Once again the credibility of the Royal Thai Police is sullied by the bad behaviour of its members who lead criminal lifestyles instead of serving as a force for good.

All supervisors of these rogue officers must also be investigated for possible negligence and a failure not only to maintain discipline of those under their supervision but also to detect criminal activities committed repeatedly under their noses.

The Royal Thai Police must get to the bottom of the matter and bring to justice all officers who may have benefited from, condoned, or failed to take appropriate action to stop such crimes.

Judging from the severity of the crimes allegedly committed by this group of rogue officers, one could perhaps ascribe the matter to the idiosyncrasies of the people involved.

But it is an open secret that the national police force's hierarchical structure, which is based on the feudalistic patronage system, provides the kind of environment that makes large- and- small-scale corruption, and even extreme criminality, possible.

Corruption has been a systemic problem that is intimately linked to the way the national police force is organised. With a long chain of command similar to the armed forces, police officers are too preoccupied with jockeying for power and currying favour from their superiors and politicians to actually serve the people.

The ongoing police reforms initiated by the outgoing Surayud government are expected to solve most of the problems that have been allowed to fester at the Royal Thai Police for so long.

The incoming Samak government must follow through with these reforms - the most ambitious ever - and vigorously implement them to achieve the lofty goal of transforming the Royal Thai Police into a more disciplined law-enforcement agency with a high degree of professionalism and public accountability.

Members of the public must keep a close watch on the new government, widely seen as a puppet administration controlled by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The former prime minister himself is notorious for manipulating the national police force and is alleged to have used it to commit wholesale human-rights violations, intimidate political opponents, and protect himself and his cronies from being prosecuted for a string of corruption scandals.

Members of our civil society and the public must exert pressure on the government to make sure the police reforms that have just been signed into law are irreversible and adhere to the form and substance of the intended purpose - to make the police force an honest and efficient crime-fighting agency.

The Nation