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Recently in a foreign online publication http://www.khaosodenglish.com / a rather "entertaining" and useful article has been published on how tourists should behave when communicating with Thai police officers. The reason for its appearance was that cases of deception of tourists by "pseudo-policemen", as well as cases of corruption and deception of tourists by real officers became more frequent. In fact, it has long been no news that the police in Thailand are very corrupt, and not a few tourists have suffered from traditional "wiring". For example, a policeman works in tandem with a figurehead who sells a prohibited substance to a tourist. And the purchase of drugs, as you know, is punished very severely in Thailand, and therefore the unlucky lover of "hanging out" has to pay a considerable amount to pay off. Unfounded claims of the police to tourist drivers are also not uncommon. So, here is a translation of an article on how to behave when dealing with police officers in Thailand:
- First of all, ask the officer to show you his document to be sure that this is not an "actor" in disguise. If you are sure that this is not a real policeman in front of you, call for help from others.
- During communication with the police, inspection or search, you have the right to record everything on video. The police can't stop you from making a video. If it hinders, then it means that you are an "actor" or just a policeman is breaking the law, so act as in the first case, i.e. call for help as witnesses of others.
- Before an inspection or search, you have the right to ask a policeman to empty his own pockets. This is necessary so that you do not get thrown forbidden items. If he refuses to do this, again act as in the first case.
- If you suddenly find an item that does not belong to you, do not touch this item and do not admit that it belongs to you. If this happens, then in fact it is already a big problem, because something was planted on you, and it is almost certainly an illegal item. Therefore, if possible, take a picture of this item and send the photo to your closest friends or relatives (this may later be needed in court), and look for a lawyer.
- Don't sign anything. If the police give you a paper to sign, read it carefully. If you can't, look for someone who can read and translate for you and whom you trust. Do not trust the translator provided by the police. Do not sign blank documents, or partially completed ones. If you managed to read everything and you didn't have any questions, fill in all the empty spaces with the crossed-out letter "Z", and if possible, sign each of the pages so that they cannot be replaced.
As you can see, there is nothing special about communicating with the police in Thailand, and everything is almost the same as ours. Remember these rules, and do not get into trouble with the police.
And on our own, we add that if you have not violated anything, or committed a minor violation, in most cases, when communicating with the Thai police, you will not have any problems. Most police officers in Thailand are polite and pleasant people, so when communicating, smile, do not raise your voice, do not wave your hands and do not threaten. Then you will have a much better chance to say goodbye to them without any problems.