Two Banglamung police volunteers were charged with impersonating sworn officers after complaints about illegal road stops and drug tests outside Pattaya.
Surachai Sansupa, 40, and Pornpitak Sangsopha, 23, were fired April 29 following complaints from Pong residents and publication of an online video showing the unsupervised volunteers stopping and searching motorcyclists at a U-turn on Highway 331 entering Sriracha.
Banglamung police chief Pol. Col. Sakchai Suwannukul also removed all police volunteers from checkpoint duty, prohibiting them from screening motorists entering or leaving the area until their backgrounds can be checked again.
Sakchai also admonished uniformed officers stationed at the Pong police box for allowing volunteers to work unsupervised and standing back as they drug tested random motorists.
Complaints about rogue police volunteers surfaced April 27 when Dollacha Neungsuk, 17, and Supiveerit Larbchon, 31, filed complaints to Banglamung Police Station about Surachai and Pornpitak.
Dollacha said a volunteer followed him as he left a 7-Eleven store and cut him off when they reached the U-turn. There, he was subjected to a search, which found no drugs or weapons. Despite that, he was taken to the police box where he had to undergo a urine test, which proved negative. All the time, a uniformed officer at the box stepped back and let the volunteers work alone.
Supveerit said he was stopped around 10 p.m. on the way home from a job interview. He, too, was searched but the two volunteers found nothing. He claimed Surachai and Pornpitak got angry when they began filming them with his mobile phone, threatening to arrest him.
The two volunteers were about to take him to the Pong police box when two teens sped by on motorbikes. The volunteers let the older man go to chase after younger victims.
Supveerit later posted the video online, which generated another wave of complaints from Pong residents also subjected to the rogue volunteers’ antics.
Police chief Sakchai apologized to the public and emphasized that volunteers cannot work unsupervised and that uniformed officers at local police outposts must file reports about any action taken involving volunteers.
He said all volunteers have been removed from screening duty while officials investigate how many have ulterior motives for working.
