SAMUT SAKHON — A row has erupted among senior police officers at a police station in Samut Sakhon province over a parking space.
The incident followed the decision by Pol.Col. Adul Chaipak, the commander of the Mueang Police Station, to park his vehicle at the basement of the station on Wednesday.
However, a junior police officer later arrived to apply a wheel clamp to his supervisor's vehicle, claiming that Pol.Col. Adul has parked the car in a restricted area. He also issued a 500-baht fine to Pol.Col. Adul for his alleged wrongdoing.
Pol.Col. Adul said that he was baffled by the punishment, as he was not aware that the parking lot was off-limits to him.
"Usually I parked my car at the other site, but on that day another car already occupied that spot, so I moved to park at the police station basement, since it was holiday and there were a lot of free spaces," Pol.Col. Adul told our correspondent, adding that the officer told him the parking lot was exclusively reserved for a certain deputy police commander.
He nevertheless agreed to pay the fines to his subordinates.
But the situation escalated when Pol.Col. Adul realised that no police officer at his station proceeded to unlock the wheel clamp even though he had already paid the fines and 8 hours had passed since he was first confronted by the junior officer.
He said he is deeply angered by the incident, stating that the punishment has gone too far. Pol.Col. Adul eventually pressed charge against his own police officers for misconduct at the police station.
A high-ranking police officer at Mueang Police Station said he sympathised with Pol.Col. Adul, as the parking space at the basement should be freely available to all officers.
"No one owns the lot. Anyone can bring their cars to park there," the officer said, "There has been an agreement to allot each space for [certain officers], but it was only a way to ensure orderliness in a public space. It is not a law or any actual regulation."
Police officers at Mueang Police Station said the case is pending a decision by the police commanders on whether to launch an official investigation.
For comments, or corrections to this article please contact: [email protected]
You can also find Khaosod English on Twitter and Facebook
http://twitter.com/KhaosodEnglish
http://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish
