KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT AND POLICE INVOLVEMENT IN NATURAL DISASTERS: A CASE STUDY OF TSUNAMI

Abstract

The current study focuses on knowledge development and police involvement in tsunami risk areas. Its objectives are to increase the level of police’s knowledge in relief operations in the aftermath of tsunami disasters and increase the level of people’s knowledge on tsunami preparedness and relief thereof. There are two sample groups; group 1 (PCG) is comprised of thirty 2^nd year cadets from the Royal Thai Police Cadet Academy, and group 2 (RPG) is comprised of 180 residents and police officers from six tsunami-prone provinces, namely, Krabi, Trang, Satun, Ranong, Phang Nga and Phuket. Both groups were participating in the project “The Knowledge Development to the Public and Police Involvement in natural disasters: tsunami”. The study instruments are before and after training achievement tests on tsunami prevention and mitigation and post-training satisfaction feedback questionnaire. Data were analysed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and paired t-test.

The study results indicated that the average pre-training score of PCG was 16.27, while that of RPG was 13.89. The average post-training knowledge score of PCG increased to 23.43, and that of RPG increased to 20.53. The paired t-test scores of both groups increased after post-training indicating that training has improved their knowledge on tsunami preparedness and relief involvement. And post-training satisfaction feedback evaluation showed that the average score of PCG on satisfaction with location/duration/food was very good (4.58±0.47), while that of RPG in knowledge application was also very good (4.51±0.57).