Quote Originally Posted by Nirish guy View Post
So, just purely out of interest might anyone have ant idea as to which it might be, i.e " Can a Thai police man arrest you 24/7 and even if he's outside of his station area etc?"
Yes, they can if the situation warrants it. Here they were hired as deterrents but they still have their police powers. I'm not sure of the legality of this working on the side business but I doubt you're going to get very far with the "you weren't officially on duty so the arrest is illegal" argument with the Thai authorities. They could also be legit auxiliary police. And the most obvious explanation, the one that farangs tend to overlook, is that they are part-and-parcel of the parasitic habitat in what is essentially an illegal industry - they are there to "protect" that particular territory, provide tips offs of impending raids and general security, in return for protection money. Their job is to manage and contain, and to deflect as much negative attention from those businesses as possible, unless of course they've been behind in their protection payments.

In this case, they clearly chose not to arrest as they probably, and correctly, thought that the whole matter could be contained. Thai police have been getting a lot of bad press lately, especially in cases involving farang women, and the last thing they'd want is another PR nightmare involving loud-mouthed Americans.