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Special Branch, Royal Thai Police Department
Special Branch, Royal Thai Police Department
Thailand

The Problem

Police Clearance Service Center, Special Branch is a government agency which under control by The Royal Thai Police Department. Our responsibility is to provide Clearance Certificate for the applicant who wants to go abroad for their purposes such as residence, work, education, and marriage etc to grant a visa requirement for the embassies use. The applicants need to show a formal certificate to guarantee their behavior to support their visa application. Thus, to process this certificate, we have to deal with other police divisions such as intelligence service center, criminal record divisions etc. which could take time for their procession and mostly we could not control the time they process before they send the report back to us. Because of the large number of applicants in each day and we do not have enough officer to service, sometimes we got so many complain about our slow service and procession time. But most of all we do believe firmly that we have to ensure that we got all correct information of the applicants before we can give them the clearance certificate. However, we try our best we could to improve our services to impress them even sometimes it could be under pressure and stress. The problems we had found before the initiative are
1. Slow procession. It took 14 working days to process the certificate. The causes are not only because of us. We have to send the fingerprint and applicant information to the criminal record division and also the intelligence service center to check that the applicant does not have any criminal record and no behavior endangering the peace or security of the state.
2. No enough officers to service the large amount of applicant.
3. Application form for Thai applicant and foreigner applicant is different and could not get all necessary information.
4. The office was too small and not comfortable environment.
5. No new technology and facilities.
6. Low standard services of the officer who have difference attitudes to people.
However, we had realized all major problems and what we need to improve. So we put all problems to discuss in our board consideration for the initiative.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The key benefits resulting from the initiative are:
1. Cut down unnecessary steps which can make the applicants can be able to collect their certificate within 7 workdays.
2. Increased officers and grouping them in small units. We have 4 lines for serving all applicants depend on their reason. Also have an information desk to guideline people to fill the form and check the related documents before submit to officer.
3. Staff training. We have improved a service standard. We did some training and establish the service mind for our officer to be more understanding sympathetic and generous to people and also practice their English language.
4. Improved the application form to be same for both Thai and foreigner applicants. We have changed the form and our new form is bi-languages (Thai-Eng) which foreigner can use, understand and give us correct information.
5. Guideline the related document for application. We informed in our website (www.sb.police.go.th/pcscenter)and also to both government services and private agencies and Embassies.
6. Improved office environment. Divided sections for fingerprint and photographing. Increased a stationary facilities and free drink, free internet and TV entertainment.
7. Field service. We have sent officers to stand by at Labor Department in case to facilitate people who could not come to our office.
8. Brought new technology. We used a system call PCSC system to collect all applicant information after they applied and all information we inputted can be process quicker and easier to print out the clearance certificate.
We have been very successful for these improvements in last few years. We have done a research of satisfaction from October 2006 to June 2007, we had 95 % satisfied applicants which came from 14,561 voters.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
It was a government policy to improve and develop the public service organizations. The Royal Thai Police agreed to reduce the procedure to make the work quicker and brought the computer system to help the work more efficiency. The solution came from the commissioner. He set up a board of commissioners and asked permission from the Police Headquarter.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The strategies were to reduce the procession by using computer system and in the same time, to collect information as much as we could by reform our application form to be easy. We do connection with the divisions we have to deal with and made an agreement to report the result of each application back to our office within 5 - 6 workdays.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Our first key development is to improve our service standard and established the service mind for our officer to be more understanding sympathetic and generous to people and also practice their English language. The other implementation steps are:
1. Using computer system to input the information and process the certificate.
2. Improved office environment and set up the working line to make a service quicker and shorter.
3. Mailing service.
4. Opinion box which we can keep improving our service.
5. Cut down some unnecessary procedure and make connection with other police divisions to make a process faster.
6. No lunch time break. We provide service from 08.30 - 16.30.
7. Inform via our website and work closely with embassies and other agencies. Give information about what they have to prepare and what we require before they come to our office.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
To gain the quality officers is a kind of difficult thing because every bureau in the Police Department quite lack of officer. We are not only wanting officer but we want officers who can communicate with foreigner. But last year the headquarter assigned some office who can use English well to our office and this problem is gone. One other thing was some applicant upset because they did not prepare the related document and we could not have enough information to guarantee and give them the clearance certificate. Later we did announce and gave information via website and informed to all embassies and other agencies. Then people do the right way and we can do our job faster and easier.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The resources are budget and human. We got the special budget from the Royal Thai Police to set up our computer system. They also assigned some good qualified officer to work for our office. The financial problem happen to every division in the Royal Thai Police department and it was take time for years to get a special budget for a special project. For the new technology, we deal with IT Company and find out the best computer system which suit for our work. Finally we found the PCSC system which cost 11 million baht and solved our service problem.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
We do believe it will. After the initiative, our office run smoothly and more practical. Less complain and more compliment. This could be a good example for other public social services especially in the Royal Thai Police Department. However, we will not stop to improve our service and launch the new technology to adjust our work circumstance in the future.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
We have learnt that without a good support from the government and the police headquarter, we could not manage and initiative. Financial problem and lacking a qualified officer were the main problem which every organization faces. The world is running and we have to bring the new technology to catch the world. The most important thing for the service organization is to satisfy people and make them impress. Service mind is very important because even you got the best high technology but people will not be please without good service mind.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Special Branch, Royal Thai Police Department
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Police Lieutenant General Teeradej Rodphothong
Title:   Commissioner  
Telephone/ Fax:   +662 205 2168
Institution's / Project's Website:   +662 205 1295
E-mail:   pcsc@police.go.th  
Address:   Building 24th. Special Branch, Royal Thai Police Department, phatumwan
Postal Code:   10330
City:   Bangkok
State/Province:  
Country:   Thailand

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