Volume 13, Issue 22
What’s Inside:
1 - 15 August 2014
30 BAHT
Tourist police will merge volunteers
P
Happy Birthday, Queen Sirikit! On behalf of the staff, management and readership of Pattaya Today, we extend sincere and respectful congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen on this auspicious occasion. Long may she continue to be an inspiration for her devotion to the Kingdom.
attaya’s Foreign Tourist Police Assistants (FTPA), a Pattayabased volunteer group of 50 resident farang from 10 countries, will amalgamate with the larger Tourist Police Volunteers (TPV) under a reorganization plan announced by the local tourist police superintendent, police lieutenant colonel Aroon Promphan. Until now, both groups have operated separately in assisting the regular tourist police carry out their duties, mostly in the Walking Street area. The responsibilities include assisting international visitors, acting as translators and attending to public order problems as and when necessary. Other duties include motorbike patrols throughout the city and helping tourists who visit the tourist police area headquarters on Buddha Hill or use the tourist police helpline. The merger of the two groups has been sparked by the resignation of Wayne Walton, a British-born ex policeman and security specialist, after two years as FTPA leader. He gave no specific reason but said he felt others
could take over the extremely timeconsuming role. Superintendent Aroon then decided on a new structure to unify both organizations under the common leadership of Samran Laepong. A Thai national who spent many years in UK and now works for a leading Pattayabased security firm, Samran said that
there would be a common uniform and management structure for the combined force in due course. It is not yet clear how the new structure will work out. Insiders say that the FTPA has had its fair share of internal Continued on page 4