By IPS Correspondents
BANGKOK, May 5 1998 (IPS)

The threat of police corruption, a regular source of torment for Bangkok residents, may have been forced into retreat — at least temporarily.

This is in the wake of a recent disclosure by Thailand’s media of a scam involving traffic division officers, who apprehend and fine motorists for spewing excessive levels of exhaust fumes and use these fictitious or exaggerated offenses to exact bribes.

Explicit television footage, which was aired over a Thai station on Apr. 22, showed a young driver giving a bribe to a junior traffic officer who had earlier pulled him over for a supposed infraction.

Throwing new light on long-festering corruption within the ranks of the more than 170,000-strong police force, the extortion footage prompted junior officers to come together to accuse their senior police officers and chiefs of involvement in major corruption.

While charges of corruption are nothing new, the airing of such routine wrongdoing over television was. The footage was shown over a station called Thai Independent Television (ITV). Newspapers picked up on the scandal, splashing photos of the filmed payoff across front pages.

ITV, which began broadcasting in 1996, has adopted a frontier approach to news in contrast with the staid style of the other state- and army-owned channels in the country.

In the not-so-distant past, the typical reaction from a powerful institution like the police may have been to threaten ITV or call for investigations into the channel.

But under Thailand’s civilian government set-up, times have changed. Instead, senior traffic division officers have been forced to stand down until investigations into corruption in the force are completed.

The scam had been an easy source of money for the department’s corrupt officers, who have been taking advantage of a legitimate attempt by the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) and the police to penalise vehicles fouling up the city’s already dirty air.

Corrupt officers often used rigged or faulty measuring devices to show motorists their exhaust levels had exceeded allowable levels, then pocket the ‘fines’ paid to them or the bribes given them to dodge paying such fees. Some officers also pocketed the legitimate fines.

In normal circumstances and for genuine infractions, a motorist charged may be expected to pay a fine of 25 dollars, which is divided between the police department and the city government, the BMA.

But instead of going to fund a clean-air drive, the collected fines have been going to erring law enforcers’ pockets. After 50 officers came forward with information on the scam, thousands of traffic tickets issued since October have been traced to a police colonel.

Money appeared to be a main motive behind the scam. The officers claimed they were given the paltry sum of 13 to 18 dollars a fortnight, in comparison with fines of 3,890 to 5,440 dollars collected per day from drivers of vehicles with “defective” exhausts.

Senior officers shared between them 20,700 to 26,000 dollars a month. Estimates of earnings from the scam run to between 777,200 dollars to 1.55 million dollars.

The police are likely to face a tougher time now, at least under Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. “No policemen, senior or junior, will be spared if there is evidence pointing to their involvement (in the extortion),” Chuan said.

There are also deeper undercurrents which are set to add to pressures for reform in the police department.

A system of promotions, pay and training has often been based on currying favour with senior officers, resulting in links of dependency between senior and junior officers.

Low pay — just 125 dollars a month for a junior officer with 10 years experience — and the pressure to meet the cash-flow demands higher up the pyramid have led to disputes within police ranks and even violence.

In some cases, several police have turned their pistols on fellow officers as tensions exploded between lower and senior officers.

In an editorial on Monday, the Bangkok-based English daily ‘The Nation’ newspaper called for a national inquiry to get to the bottom of the police scandal.

The paper says the removal of the traffic police chief, Police Major General Prachit Srichaiyant, “only underlines the magnitude of the crisis rocking the Police Department”.

“The exposed scam requires nothing short of a national inquiry by a neutral, high-level and accountable body,” the ‘Nation’ said. “The whole country is the plantiff in this case and Thai people are calling for a totally transparent investigation.”

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