With the recent spate of violence involving Thais and foreign tourists on Walking Street, Pattaya City authorities are exploring ways and means to enhance the security and safety of people of all nationalities who come to the world famous shopping and nightlife strip during the day or late at night without being harassed or harmed by street hooligans.
To this end Deputy Mayor Wuthisak Rerkijakarn called a meeting of Law Enforcement Policy and Planning Division and Peace Maintenance Division of Pattaya City on Sept. 2, to discuss effective security and safety measures for the entertainment strip.
He said statistics showed that most of the disturbances start after 3 a.m. involving traffic accidents, altercations amongst intoxicated Thai and foreign holiday makers and arguments with street vendors.
Pol. Maj. Jeerawat Sudontasub, Director of Administration, said that Pattaya City deploys 10 security officers to patrol Walking Street and that the responsibilities of the Law Enforcement Policy and Planning Division officers are to maintain peace only. They do not have the power or authority to make arrests. He proposed that Pattaya city request the Pattaya police station and the Tourist police division to assign a contingent of officers to patrol Walking Street during the critical hours, saying, the Pattaya and Tourist police have the power to suppress and arrest trouble makers and lawbreakers.
Dep. Mayor Wuthisak agreed on the proposal and will draft a letter to the respective police departments to request a team of police officers to assist.
He also agreed to increase the number of City Hall peacekeepers on Walking Street.
Wuthisak said that followed the incident of the Mountain B nightclub fire in Sattahip that killed 23 people, Pattaya authorities have become more vigilant in their inspections of night clubs to ensure that their firefighting equipment are in working order and most importantly that there are adequate fire escapes in the building.
Reports from his inspectors indicate that most of the nightclubs had only one fire escape and those that had more than one were locked or were not easy to open.
Worse yet, many nightclubs are built right next to other structures, so it was not possible to build any fire escape doors because of space restrictions. This was a serious concern for Wuthisak so he instructed Phonchai Sangeif, Banglamung assistant district officer and Sarawut Tiwongsa, Pattaya Inspector to urgently look into the matter and find solutions before another major accident occurred.
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