Police prove the law does not apply to all

What should have been a routine procedure has become another damning indictment of the country’s notorious police force. When Bangkok’s police chief drove through not one but two drink-driving checkpoints manned by volunteers, the outcome was anything but by the book. Instead, it was yet another example of inequality and injustice in law enforcement, and how those who think they are entitled to preferential treatment can get away with it by asking: “Don’t you know who I am?”

Pol Lt Gen Sriwara Rangsipramanakul opened up on Wednesday about his behaviour when asked to prove his sobriety on two occasions recently. At the first checkpoint, manned by volunteer police, he rolled down the window and told them he was sober.

Off-duty, out of uniform and in a private vehicle at the time, Pol Lt Gen Sriwara went unrecognised and the volunteer officer acted entirely appropriately in insisting he blow into the breathalyser. The Bangkok bureau chief, in his own words, told them "no" five times.

“If those volunteers were quality people, and had some wits, they would have realised that I didn’t smell of any alcohol,” he was quoted as saying. “Eventually, I had to tell them who I was and get out of my car and criticise them.”

At a second checkpoint, outside the Criminal Court no less, the outcome was similar: he was not tested.

Pol Lt Gen Sriwara not only recounted the encounters to the nation’s media without shame or apology, he was adamant the volunteers were in the wrong for trying to do their jobs without fear or favour. He questioned not only the volunteers’ abilities, but also their character, saying that if they were quality people and had wits about them they would not have asked him in the first place. In other words, the traffic police officers should have known who he was and given him special treatment, even off-duty and out of uniform.

Pol Lt Gen Sriwara ordered only “quality” volunteers be selected for traffic duty, and wanted his number plate memorised so he would not be asked again. To the shame of the Traffic Police Division, he got his way. On Thursday, a day after the chief made his complaints public, Pol Maj Gen Thanapon Techatanon announced traffic police would be required to memorise the faces and number plates of their superiors “so this mistake will not happen again”.

This is a travesty of justice and another dark day, among many, for the reputation of the Royal Thai Police. Now it is a matter of public record that the country’s most senior police officers will not be held to the same standard as average citizens. Those who should be the very models of law-abiding behaviour should be setting an example; now drivers will ask themselves why they have to take a breath test when Bangkok’s police chief refuses to.

It has long been noted the law is applied unevenly, and rich and influential people have very different dealings with the police force than those without means or connections. Either we are equal before the law or not, and examples ranging from beverage empire heirs in Ferraris to Thai-British actresses show we are not, but it seems somehow especially egregious for those sworn to uphold the law to place themselves above it.

The volunteer police manning the drink-driving checkpoints should have been praised rather than berated. They did their jobs and were playing their part in the difficult task of making the city’s deadly roads safer. Frontline officers need to be encouraged to enforce the law even-handedly, but instead they are being told the opposite. There can be no possible justification for letting anyone escape a breath test, especially with Thailand's road toll being among the world’s worst and drink-driving being the biggest killer. Drunken drivers need to be off the roads, no matter who they are.

Under the law, refusing to take a breath test is punishable by up to a year in prison. This is the same maximum term as being found guilty of drink-driving, which makes a refusal to be breathalysed tantamount to an admission of guilt.

There have been too many examples of people avoiding breathalysers and the disappointing comments from two senior policemen came only weeks after police were criticised for allowing actress Anna Reese to leave a fatal crash scene without being tested for alcohol. That case begs the question, if police will not enforce drink-driving laws fairly when one of their fellow officers is killed, when will they?

Police feel society does not give them enough respect, but they have not done enough to earn it. They should start by respecting the law and making sure nobody is above it, and then they might win some of their own.