Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well Tourist Police Volunteers and Foreign Police Volunteers here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after I received an email which I will get into here in a moment that was in response to a prior video we made that was after an email I received from somebody who had had a less than positive experience dealing with what appeared to be a Tourist Police Volunteer or what I ascertained now that I have further information was a Tourist Police Volunteer, but again I am not totally sure on that first video what was what and further information came to light via this person that sent me an email and I thank them for that. I am going to read that here in a moment but this person that sent me an email and said well actually there are two different things going on here. 

So I received the following email, quoting directly: "Mr. Hart, A friend just suggested I watch the video because he knew I would be interested as a 10-year Tourist Police Volunteer." Quoting further: "We have both Tourist Police Volunteers and Foreign Police Volunteers; two separate groups." Quoting further: "As a Tourist Police Volunteer I am told I do not go out by myself, I only go out with a Tourist Police Officer. The only exception to that is when I am asked to be an interpreter at one of the local police stations but then I am with a city policeman." Quoting further: "Normally our work is only to help tourists and expats. Very rarely do we get involved in an actual crime and then that is usually turned over to the local police for their investigation and any charges if appropriate." Quoting further: "Here in the city there are Foreign Police Officers who have complete military style uniforms that look very official. I on the other hand have only a white polo shirt that says Chiang Mai Police Volunteer. I am asked to wear black or navy blue pants with that. I have on a couple of occasions been asked to be an interpreter for a couple of them as most of them do not speak Thai. The ones I dealt with seem to be enjoying the power and perceived prestige and were not doing it for altruistic motives. They were aggressive with both the Thais and foreigners involved. So your letter writer's description of the traffic stop did not surprise me. Enough said, I really just wanted to react since your words seem to group the FPVs (that is the Foreign Police Volunteers) with the Tourist Police Volunteers; they are not the same group." Okay. Interesting. I was not actually aware of that. I thought all these Police Volunteers sort of fell under one umbrella. Again, thanks to that email writer. I'm not going to use your name but thanks very much. 

So the thing to take away from this video is yes there is a difference and it was a difference I was not fully aware of in terms, and now that I see it I guess I kind of get that okay, there are volunteers that assist, Tourist Police by the way and standard Police if you want to call it that, are different things. There is specifically a Tourist Police Department and then there is the National Police and the local police, and things, sort of the standard like, if you want to look at it like the military, it's kind of like Line Officers maybe versus JAG officers or something like this in the American military context. But again, that's not really apples to apples comparison either but long story short, yes there appears to be a differential, in terms of the difference between a Foreign Police Volunteer and a Tourist Police Volunteer as they are not the same thing. Now I don't know, maybe there's a little bit of professional rivalry going there where they are describing maybe how one acts and another doesn't act that way, whatever. Me personally, I have never had a dealing directly with a Foreign Police Volunteer, whatever they may be. Candidly, now that I am Thai I probably wouldn't, I'm not going to be difficult or a problem with anybody that was a volunteer helping the Police but if they were sort of acting imperiously toward me as if they had some sort of authority as Police per se in Thailand, I would have some issues with that on a personal level. That being said, that's never happened and quite honestly I doubt it ever will. But I did not know and I thought it was worth making a video in order to stand corrected and clarify fully that apparently yes there are two types of Foreign Volunteers that assist Police here in the Kingdom of Thailand.