> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://easythailandvisa.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # There Is a Police Force in Thailand Whose Entire Job Is Tourists - URL: https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-tourism-police-1155/ - Published: 2026-07-16T00:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T05:41:07.000Z - Description: Dial 1155 and you reach a police force that speaks your language, is not part of the chain of command you are imagining, and will actually turn up. - Author: Somchai Jaidee - Tags: Practicalities A man on [Koh Samui](https://easythailandvisa.com/getting-to-koh-samui-without-flying/) took my phone, walked into the sea with it, and returned twenty minutes later to tell me he had found it. The person who found it told a staff member, who called the Tourist Police, who sent a patrol, who located the man, who made him hand it back. That entire chain exists because Thailand runs a police service specifically for this. Last verified 1 August 2026. ## What the Tourist Police actually are **A branch of the Royal Thai Police with a national mandate for tourism,** staffed largely by officers with English language capability and a genuine mandate to help visitors rather than to process offences. **They are not the regular police,** they are not a tourist assistance hotline in the sense of a call centre, and they have real powers. They investigate, they attend, and they can take action on a complaint. **And they are free.** There is no charge for their help and nobody is going to ask you for a fee. ## When to dial 1155 **When you have been overcharged and the vendor will not fix it,** which is the single most common use and the one they are genuinely set up to resolve. A TPT officer will turn up at the shop or the bar and the dynamic of the situation changes entirely. **Lost property,** including the case above, and including on [islands](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-islands-nobody-is-talking-about/) where the local police may not have the language or the inclination. **Scams in progress,** the fake gem shops, the closed-shop taxi meter disputes, the [ATM](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-atm-fees-explained/) card retention, the tuk-tuk tour that became a demand for money. **Anything where a foreigner is being targeted specifically,** which is a category the Tourist Police take more seriously than a general call would. **And when you genuinely do not know what to do,** which is more often than people admit. They will tell you whether something is a crime, a civil dispute, a misunderstanding, or a complete non-issue, and that is real value. ## When to use the regular police instead **For anything involving violence, serious crime, or a missing person,** dial [191](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-emergency-numbers/). The Tourist Police will route it but you want the right service on the line. **For a medical emergency,** that is 1669 for an ambulance. The Tourist Police are not a medical service and they will help you find one. **For fire,** that is 199\. And for the police on a specific island, knowing the local station number and the local officer's name is genuinely useful, and 1155 will give it to you. ## The complaints route, which is the underrated part **For anything that is not urgent, there is a formal complaint process and it is worth knowing about** because it is the mechanism that produces actual consequences rather than a scene in a bar at midnight. **Get a reference number.** Every complaint should produce one, and without one nothing can be followed up. Write it down at the time. **Write down what happened while it is fresh** and get the address of the business, the date, the amount, and if there is a receipt or a photo, keep it. A complaint without a specific business is a complaint that cannot be actioned. **And follow up.** The reference number is the thing that makes the complaint a record rather than a conversation, and a record is what changes behaviour the third time somebody has one. ## The limits, honestly **They cannot make a shop give you money back if there was no overcharging,** and they will not invent an offence to be helpful to somebody they like. **They are not going to recover property months later,** and anybody who promises you that about a lost phone is telling you a story. **Language ability outside English is uneven,** particularly for Chinese, Russian and Japanese speakers in the tourist areas, and it is worth being realistic about that if it applies to you. **And in genuinely remote areas, response times are real response times** and not the four minutes of a city hotel concierge. ## The one to have on your phone **Save 1155 in your phone before you arrive, along with 191, 1669 and 199.** Looking it up while somebody is holding your bag costs you ten minutes of authority you would have had for free. **And screenshot it.** A phone with no signal and a dead battery is the exact situation in which a number you can read in the dark is worth more than a contact you have to scroll to. **More on this** - [The Helmet Law Is Enforced and the Police Check the Category](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-helmet-law-motorbike-passengers/) - [Most Tourists Who Crash a Scooter in Thailand Are Not Hurt](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-road-accidents-and-motorbike-insurance/) - [What Happens If Your Arrival Card Does Not Match Your Passport](https://easythailandvisa.com/arrival-card-mismatch-immigration/)