A delegation of highly trained Royal Thai national police officers from Thailand received specialized training from Dallas Police Wednesday.
The group of 17 Royal Thai federal police spent most of the afternoon training with officers at the Dallas Police Academy.
The group said they learned a lot about crime-fighting strategies here in Texas that they can take overseas. In particular, the DPD training officers shared important strategies for finding drug dealers, and what to do if a suspect pulls out a gun during an escalating confrontation.
The Thai police officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat training exercises side-by-side with DPD recruits.
Later, the Thai officers sat in the backseat as trained DPD instructors went through car chase demonstrations and driving strategies on the academy's outdoor track.
The most intense part of the academy training, though, came at the end of the afternoon, when the Thai officers participated in "reality-based" training scenarios, complete with guns and non-lethal paint bullets.
Dallas Police Maj. Jimmy Vaughan said experiences like this are exactly what the Royal Thai group will bring home and teach to others.
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"During that reality training, when he was being shot at, their commander said, 'Wow! That happens really fast! I said, 'Yes, you gotta be fast, you gotta protect yourself,'" Vaughan said.
Vaughan said it's a different culture in that country – a lot less gun ownership, and a lot more respect for authority. But on the other side, officers are perhaps less willing to confront people and search for weapons.
That's why the memories from the "reality-based" training are so important, he said.
"If we can adapt that into our country, we can work more effectively," said Royal Thai officer Prot Setthakron, who was bleeding slightly from his hand after being shot during the mock-confrontation.
The group of 17 Royal Thai officers from the Immigration Bureau chose Dallas for training because Vaughan is from Thailand and helped coordinate the visit.
"That was one of biggest draws. They're aware of my position here. I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, and that's my first language," he said. "I knew exactly what they were looking for, and I could point them in the right direction."
"To me it's pretty rewarding. That of all the cities they chose to ride with, they came to train with Dallas," Vaughan added.
The group was stunned to learn the ingenious ways Dallas officers catch people hiding drugs – ChapStick tubes, spark plugs, pens, cigars, make-up containers, and water bottles.
They hope seeing the tools first-hand can help them catch international smugglers.
"I'm an investigator at the airport. We deal a lot with people smuggling and human trafficking," Setthakron said.
The group also learned about the Dallas Police bait car program, a car used to lure car thieves but filled with cameras and able to be remotely turned off.
They visited the 911 center and DPD Headquarters, and learned about how the city's surveillance cameras can sometimes catch crooks in action.
"The Dallas Police Department has really good technology," Setthakron said.
The Thai police will spend a few days visiting other Texas cities, like Austin and Houston, before returning home next week.
