Pattaya Police officials are promising changes to traffic checkpoints after a police driver impersonating a law-enforcement volunteer allegedly tried to plant drugs on a local reporter.
Deputy superintendent Pol. Lt. Pawatchai Susakorn said all officers and volunteers working road checkpoints will be screened and required to dress in uniform, following the Feb. 28 “misunderstanding” at a road stop in South Pattaya.
This man, identified only as Pongsawat, allegedly tried to frame a drugs possession charge on a 25-year-old journalist.
Reporter Thiwaokorn Kritmanee, 25, was stopped by traffic police on his way to work around 9:30 p.m. He did not disclose that he was a journalist.
While cooperating with officers, a casually dressed man, later identified as Pongsawat, 42, approached wearing a police helmet and held up a packet of drugs, saying he saw the reporter toss it away before reaching the checkpoint.
He vehemently denied the drugs were his and was soon backed up by another group of journalists, who then made it known Thiwaokorn was a reporter and started filming the suspected frame job.
Officers at the scene quickly dropped the interrogating, calling it all a “misunderstanding” and informing them the helmeted “police volunteer” was in fact a driver whose only job was to ferry cars for traffic police.
Thiwaokorn made a formal complaint with Pol. Lt. Sanan Khotanont, claiming that rogue officers likely were running this scam on innocent people and extorting money from them to make the “charges” go away. Sanan intended to bring in all the officers from the checkpoint for questioning.
Two days later, Pawatchai – admitting surprise that the issue had blown up into national news and not gone away quietly as police had hoped – again was forced to “clarify” the situation, repeating that the volunteer was only a driver and that the issue was still considered a “misunderstanding.”
Nonetheless, he promised changes to make checkpoints cleaner and the personnel involved easily recognizable. Thiwaokorn said he had no plans to press the issue further.
