Gen. Somyos Pumpanmuang,
a consultant for the Royal Thai Police, meets with top officials from
the Region 2, Chonburi and Tourist police bureaus.
Warunya Thongrod
From the ongoing jet ski scam crisis to crippling
traffic, area law-enforcement agencies were quizzed on how they plan to
solve Pattaya’s many obstacles to the Prime Minister’s goal of
increasing Thailand’s tourism revenue to 2 trillion baht annually by
2015.
Gen. Somyos Pumpanmuang, a consultant for the Royal
Thai Police, called top officials from the Region 2, Chonburi and
Tourist police bureaus to a review meeting July 18, along with top
Banglamung and Pattaya government leaders.
Somyos ordered police officials to make Walking
Street a “safety zone” and produce reports on the city’s most-powerful
criminals, international gangs, jet ski thugs and scamming rental car
agents. He also pushed for faster upgrades in CCTV technology and
emergency phone booths.
He said police also need to better inform the public
about emergency services through brochures and the media if Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s goal is to be met.
His suggestions follow a July 4 decision by the Royal
Thai Police in Phuket to make that island a model for cleaning up all of
the country’s tourist resorts. The “Phuket model” calls for increased
CCTV use, safety zones, tourist hotlines and crackdowns on the city’s
jet skis and tuk-tuk operators.
Deputy Chonburi Police Station Superintendent Col.
Pisith Proirungroj began the police presentations with a review of
Pattaya’s ongoing problems of prostitution, petty crime against tourists
and scamming business operators.
He said police have taken steps to improve security
for tourists with the construction of a 3-meter-tall watch tower and six
police boxes along Pattaya Beach, plus added patrols until 1 a.m. and
aggressive tree pruning to increase light on the dark beach pathway.
Maj. Gen. Kraibun Suadsong, of the Office of Police
Strategy, said police are recording information on all entertainment
venues and trained officers to speak multiple languages.
Chonburi station Superintendent Maj. Gen. Jumnong
Rattanakul said he’d met with Gov. Khomsan Ekachai, who called Pattaya’s
jet ski scammers an urgent priority.
Kraibun said officers would follow the “Phuket model”
to reign in jet ski vendors in Pattaya, but officials on the southern
island have yet to solve their own problem. Jet skis still operate
illegally on two beaches there with impunity and a mandatory insurance
program has failed.
Tourist Police Division 1 commander Maj. Gen. Adit
Ngamjitsuksri has suggested that the number of Tourist Police officers
patrolling entertainment areas and beaches be doubled to 80 and that the
bureau be given jurisdiction over rental agents, jet ski vendors and
street peddlers.
Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh also is pushing
for more jurisdiction for the city, saying it currently cannot enact
many laws to improve security in the city. He said the city is working
with national government agencies to give city officials more power.
Pattaya Marine Department Acting Director Ekarat
Khantharo said the department is hoping to reign in jet ski vendors by
reclassifying 452 boats registered in the city to make them fall under
specialized-boat rental laws, giving the agency more enforcement
capabilities.
Jurisdictional issues were also on the mind of
Jumnong, who complained that the Pattaya area’s other pressing issue -
traffic - could not be solved unless local police are given more power.
He said local police don’t have jurisdiction on Highway 7, which feeds
most of the traffic into the city.
He said if local police could write tickets and
enforce traffic laws on the highway, the traffic flow on Sukhumvit Road
and into the city would be improved.
