Abstract
The Thai police has experienced a rapid expansion during the 1930s and the 1940s when the Thai government, then under the control of the People's Party, realized that the shortage of officials and constables had prevented the provincial police from exercising effective criminal suppression, resulting in a conspicuous weakening of its authority. To solve these problems, the government substantially increased the number of policemen and in the process took over from provincial authorities the responsibility of ensuring public order. This can thus be seen as an attempt by the central state to extend its reach over functionally differentiated provincial administrations by centralizing all policing actions. This study however argues that the expansion actually failed to create an effective police agency and in the process weaken the central state's reach to the local areas. This failure was evident in the haphazard and disorganized manner in the recruitment and training of new policemen, and in the failure of the program to develop a sense of solidarity among its new personnel.
