BANGKOK, THAILAND — Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, Thai national police chief has apologised on Tuesday (31 January) to those victims who were affected by the alleged police extortion, following Taiwanese actress Charlene An exposed that she was extorted by seven officers during her visit to Bangkok.
He had ordered the Bangkok Police Chief to find out the facts in the case involving Ms An as soon as possible.
“I would like to stress that our city has lots of visitors coming. Immigration police, tourist police and local police must take the best care of tourists. And for the incident that has happened, if there is wrongdoing, as the head of the organization, I apologise to the victims affected by what happened.”
According to Bangkok Post, 14 police were questioned over the alleged soliciting of a bribe on Monday (30 January). They all denied they took a bribe.
Seven officers have been transferred to inactive positions while investigations are ongoing.
Damrongsak said Bangkok police investigators might go to Taiwan and Singapore to question people involved, but would listen to them through any other channel.
“There are still many good police. We must encourage the good ones and deal with the bad ones,” Thai police chief stressed that these police officers will be punished if found guilty.
Charlene An exposed her unpleasant encounter in Bangkok on IG
Ms An was travelling in Bangkok with her friends between 29 December to 5 January. She posted on IG stories alleged that they were stopped at a police checkpoint during the wee hours of 4 January in the Huai Khwang district of Bangkok, in front of the Chinese Embassy.
“I was stopped at 2.25am… I wanted to secretly record them but was caught and made to delete my footage,” Ms An said she wanted to call for help via phone, but the officers disallowed and scolded her.
Ms An said she was told that her Visa on Arrival was unacceptable and must be printed on her passport with an official emblem. But after an hour of quibbling, they finally figured out the officers might be asking for money.
She alleged that the officers instructed her to “pay 27,000 baht (US$820) to be free”, adding that they were “more expensive” officers.
“I will never go back to Thailand and I would like to warn Taiwanese people that they should be careful when they are visiting Thailand and do not carry a lot of cash in their wallets,” she said. 
In her latest post on her Instagram account, Ms An expressed her gratitude to the people who gave her encouragement, support and care “to help me walk through this moment of traumatic darkness”.
Thai police earlier denied Ms An’s allegation
Thai police earlier denied Ms An’s allegation, claiming Ms An appeared to be “drunk” at that time and warned her about the illegal possession of a vaping device before she was allowed to leave the checkpoint.
However, at another press conference on Monday(30 January), Bangkok police chief Thiti Saengsawang admitted that the police officers involved may have extorted money from Ms An, as the findings of an investigation “are in line with speculation in news reports.”
He also noted that the police helmet recordings were erased, but that forensics would still have to determine if they were erased manually or expired automatically.
