In Nakhon Ratchasima, senior police officials are trying to find out how a police van and a group of officers from Muang district ended up at a beach in Phetchaburi.
Panurat Lakboon, the commissioner of Provincial Police Region 3, ordered the investigation after a video showing men and women in holiday outfits getting out of the police van at Cha-am beach and eating on beach chairs on Friday went viral. Many people who watched it commented that the use of an official vehicle appeared inappropriate.
The van belonged to the Phon Krang police station in Muang district of the northeastern province, 425 kilometres from Cha-am.
Pol Lt Gen Lakboon said on Saturday that Pol Maj Gen Pornchai Nonwachai, chief of Nakhon Ratchasima police, brought the matter to his attention and he had ordered a fact-finding committee to investigate it.
The result of the investigation should be known in seven days, said the regional chief.
An initial investigation found that police from the station had no official duties in Phetchaburi.
If the investigation showed that some officers attached to the Phon Krang station had used the police van for personal use, they would face disciplinary punishment, said Pol Lt Gen Lakboon.
