PPolice officers from the Bangkok Metropolitan Office had less than 24 hours to prepare for their latest undercover operation. They would perform as lion dance performers at a temple fair held for the lunar new year. Their mission: locate and arrest a suspected thief who had a history of evading officers.
“The dance was spontaneous. We just did what we did,” said police captain Lertvarit Lertvorapreecha, adding that no one had time to practice. In her haste, she accidentally grabbed her colleague’s male mask, which she was wearing with a red silk dress, pants, and tactical shoes.
However, his disguise seemed to work. Children rushed to join in and passersby laughed. Most importantly, they were able to take their suspect by surprise, knocking him to the ground amid a fall of red and gold fabric. He is now in prison awaiting trial, accused of stealing Buddhist artefacts worth £47,717.
Lertvarit team officers have often donned unusual costumes to surprise suspects, dressing up as foliage, construction workers and even a Lycra-clad wrestler, with images going viral online and making headlines both in Thailand and abroad.
“You can’t hide from the invisible or what you can’t see,” Lertvarit said.
“The quickest way to arrest someone is to surprise them, when they are enjoying life, without knowing what is happening around them,” he added.
The inspiration for the costumes comes from field work and criminal profiling, according to Lertvarit. In the lion dance case, officers knew that the suspect had fled to a new area and that the lunar new year festivities, when the streets would be filled with celebrations, would provide a good opportunity for them to mingle with the crowd.
The target was a professional thief with a long history of thefts, Lertvarit said. “He is very aware of his surroundings. If he suspects something, he just runs away. He is also a very good runner,” he added.
The suspect, who has since confessed to some robberies, was carrying a knife at the time of his arrest, Lertvarit said.
Although undercover disguises have largely been used for laughs on social media, these tactics have been used to apprehend criminals accused of serious crimes, including rape and sexual crimes against children.
In another case that drew national attention, an officer crawled several hundred meters across rice fields in a ghillie (camouflage) suit – losing his headphones along the way – to arrest a man wanted for sexually assaulting a minor. The suspect in the 2024 case lived in a secluded cabin surrounded by fields, and officers feared they would be easily spotted if they arrived in cars or motorcycles.
In a separate case that same month, an officer dressed as a wrestler, as part of an elaborate sting operation, arrested a Chinese tourist accused of rape and filming his victim.
The suspect, in conversation with undercover agents, had asked a man dressed as a wrestler to swing.
When he arrived at a hotel room, the undercover officer shouted a code word. At that point, backup officers broke into closets, the hotel bathroom, the balcony, and under the bed. They confiscated evidence, including videos from the man’s phone. At that time, the individual denied any wrongdoing.
The office has rejected suggestions that the operations are aimed at creating content for social media, saying they have led to actual arrests. The disguises were generally only used to apprehend seasoned criminals or those with a history of fleeing arrest, Lertvarit said, adding that public response had been overwhelmingly positive.
Surveys have shown that members of the Thai public have mixed attitudes towards the police: one survey showed a high level of trust, but another indicated that many respondents were concerned about corruption.
Lertvarit hopes that the images of the operations that have been shared will show the Thai public that they are committed to fighting crime and remind criminals that “the world is getting smaller every day.”
