The Traffic Police Division has been ordered to look into the behaviour of an officer seen in a social media video clip asking a bus driver to pay a parking fee on a public road.
Deputy police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen said on Friday that traffic police chief Pol Maj Gen Nithithorn Jintakanon would set up the investigation and the officer concerned would be temporarily suspended from road duty.
The decision came after a video clip posted by khuntom tour on his Facebook account was confirmed as happening on Wednesday morning on a road outside the new Mor Chit bus terminus.
The Royal Thai Police Office on Friday identified the man as Pol Lt Manas Piemnet.
The bus driver claimed he stopped the chartered bus to drop passengers in a permitted area. The traffic officer then came over to demand a "parking fee" from him.
"Parking fee. Pay me quickly. It has been a tradition," the policeman says in the clip.
"How much?" the driver asks, and the answer from the law enforcement officer is 100 baht.
"It's a tradition," he repeats.
The driver refused to pay, saying he was stopping in a zone set aside for public buses to park.
The driver explained that a police superintendent had said the areas were designated as free parking for buses, and the policeman then dropped his demand.
"What you are doing is wrong. I work all night for 100 baht," the driver says.
"Go, go, go," the traffic officer says, before walking away.
Pol Maj Gen Nithithorn posted a message on his Facebook account, saying his subordinate's action was "unacceptable", although the clip did not show he had taken the money.
"I will not protect any traffic policeman who works without dignity," he wrote.
