Somyot urges police board be scrapped
National police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang said yesterday he was considering proposing the government dissolve the Board of the Royal Thai Police as part of efforts to reform the organisation.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the Royal Police Cadet Academcy in Nakhon Pathom yesterday, Pol Gen Somyot said if all sides agree that law enforcement has to be free from political interference, the board will have to be dissolved.
He said he would submit this proposal to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and cabinet ministers.
“If Prime Minister Prayut can dissolve it, he will become the hero of all police officers,” Pol Gen Somyot said.
The Board of the Royal Thai Police is chaired by the prime minister and consists of government officials who hold positions equivalent to permanent secretary. It appoints the national police chief and directs high-level police policies.
Along with the proposal to scrap the board, he would also ask the government to consider a proposal to transfer police divisions, such as the tourist, railway, highway and forest divisions to other agencies, he said.
Police reform has become a hot topic at public forums, Pol Gen Somyot said. Even a number of retired police officials are now calling for an overhaul, even though they never brought up reform when they were in office, he added.
The national police chief said reform is in the public interest, and he encourages the police officers themselves to come up with ideas needed for change because no one else knows the force better than its own people, said Pol Gen Somyot.
Ideas will be drafted into a set of guidelines for reform, he said.
Topics discussed at the forum were how to free the police organisation from political interference, ways of decentralising the power of the National Police Office, how to improve public participation in police affairs and transferring criminal investigation work to other organisations, he said.
Provincial Police Region 1 commander Pol Lt Gen Amnuay Nimmano insisted he is not against reform but said it should be carried out carefully.
As for who should lead reform of the police, any organisation capable of accomplishing this mission could do the job, not just the police.
The National Reform Council should hold a joint forum with the National Police Office on reform, he said.
He could not, however, agree with calls to transfer the force to come under local administration organisations. They would have to improve themselves first, he said.