Feeling stressed out? This Thai cop offers massage to police station visitors to 'relieve distress'

Feeling stressed out at the police station?

One policeman in Thailand is providing free massages to ease visitors’ stress when they lodge a complaint or report at the police station.

But this service is only provided at Nong Trud station in Muang district, according to local media.

Thai police Lieutenant Pakronkrit Thongsuk, who is reportedly a professionally trained Thai-massage practitioner, began offering massages to visitors after noticing that many of them were visibly stressed.

The 58-year-old then launched a “Massage to Relieve Distress” scheme to make visitors’ experience at the police station more tolerable.

As a frontline officer, he regularly meets the public who need to file reports at the station, said the Bangkok Post.

Visitors are offered a glass of cold water and a herbal candy of their choice, which Lt Pakronkrit claims that can soothe a variety of ailments, reported local media.

If he sees a visitor looking particularly stressed, he will ask the visitor for permission to massage their neck and head for about 10 to 15 minutes.

“Visits to a station are not exactly a walk in the park, so anything that we can do to relieve their stress levels will help,” he was quoted in local media.

However, he feels that his scheme does not receive enough attention from his superiors, who tend to focus on crime-busting investigators rather than officers with desk duty.

Lt Pakronkrit has also taken part in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education programme, which aims to tackle drug abuse in schools.

Under the programme, police are sent to educate students in schools about the dangers of drugs and raise drug awareness.

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As an instructor, Lt Pakronkrit gets paid 3,900 baht (S$151) per school term.

However, he donates his pay to the school where he teaches and contributes an additional 100 baht of his own money towards the school’s development, according to The Bangkok Post.

He moved to Trang in southern Thailand after his wife became the director of a local school in the Muang district.

He began working as a non-commissioned officer, and then rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant.

After a couple of years, he saved enough money to pay for the traditional massage training.

And he is looking to make a career out of it when he retires from the police force in three years.

Lt Pakronkrit was quoted in The Bangkok Post as saying that Thai massage is world-renowned as it works in soothing physical and emotional stress.

By giving massages at the police station, he is able to gain experience for his post-retirement job.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.