Public trust in the royal Thai police

Abstract

Public trust in the Royal Thai Police constitutes a crucial foundation of state authority legitimacy and the effectiveness of law enforcement in democratic regimes, particularly within Thailand’s contemporary social context, where the Royal Thai Police is subject to continuous public scrutiny. This academic article employs documentary analysis and the synthesis of public administration theories, together with empirical evidence derived from public opinion surveys conducted by NIDA Poll during 2023–2024, to examine the current state of public trust in the police organization. The findings indicate that a significant portion of the public continues to express concerns regarding fairness, transparency, and equality in law enforcement practices. Within the framework of Weber’s theory of bureaucracy, public trust is closely associated with citizens’ perceptions of state power exercised in accordance with the rule of law, political neutrality, and the limitation of discretionary authority among officials. At the same time, political perception theory helps explain that public trust does not emerge automatically; rather, it is constructed through direct experiences, organizational communication, and the presentation of information through public media. In the context of police organizations, these factors exert substantial influence on institutional image and public evaluation. Accordingly, this article aims to examine the level of public trust in the Royal Thai Police and to analyze the structural and perceptual factors influencing such trust, based on the theoretical frameworks of Max Weber’s bureaucracy theory, political perception theory, and the policy and legal frameworks governing the administration of the Royal Thai Police.