Trainings for police and prosecutors in Thailand

June 7th to 10th 2022, NCHR conducted in-person training on investigative interviewing with Thai police and prosecutors. This is the first training of its kind carried out based on the Méndez Principles. During the week, NCHR conducted trainings and ran practical exercises with the Royal Thai Police Cadet Academy, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), and the Office of the Attorney General of Thailand (OAG).

Booklet containing the Mendez principles in Thai language. In the background: Course participants.

Thai version of the Mendez principles. (June 2022, Thailand). Image credit: Ivar Fahsing  

Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Police Academy Lieutenant General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot opened and closed the training for the Thai police. He emphasized the importance of this change in Thailand and said that he hoped that NCHR would come back and run more trainings in the future.

The OAG (prosecution) held a separate seminar for all employees where they were informed about NCHR’s work in Thailand and what implications investigative interviewing may have for the quality of criminal investigations.

At the DSI, NCHR completed two full days of training. The trainings and the practical exercises were very well received and many of the participants stated that they wanted to take this further towards a new practice in use this approach in the cases they were investigating. As one of the specialist investigators exclaimed during the training: “Working on a practical case was so stimulating that I woke up in the middle of the night while thinking about how I should conduct the interviews the next day. This has been so exciting, but also different from what we have been used to and challenging for us here in Thailand.”

By Knut D. Asplund
Published June 13, 2022 12:20 PM - Last modified June 13, 2022 12:20 PM