Corrupt Police ! (Maybe) | Checkpoint

November 25th, 2019 by der_finn

Definitely corrupt!
Stopped us (Colombian plates) and looked for something that was not in order. First fixated on tinted windows but when I was ready to argue with the Vienna convention etc he quickly let it go (still don’t know if I’m right with the tinted windows) and focused on the two guys we were giving a ride from Montañita to Baños who didn’t wear their seatbelts despite the fact that we told them to do so. The officer wanted to “help us to enjoy the holiday” for some money on the spot. I got quite angry at the guys and the officer and told them to figure out something by themselves. I had to translate and while negotiating (all in Spanish) I asked what we’d have to pay if we went to the station. He replied “one hundred dollares”, the only words in English he said, as if he had already prepared himself to name this amount to possible victims. The boys had to pay 15 each and he let us go. Remarkable how he fixated on the seatbelts after he probably got the we were ready to argue about the window tint.

On the way back to banos we successfully dodged them by going via the city of Milagro.

July 9th, 2019 by lena.cavatica

Police followed us in their car and honked so we pulled over. They wanted to see my licence and told me it's not allowed to have tinted windows. We acted as if we wouldn't speak Spanish and didn't understand what they wanted. After a half a minute of not very intense trying to bribe us, they just let us go since we would only answer in English. Be aware that there is a lot of police all over the place, not just in the town, also the whole region. There seems to be a concentration of bribery attempts in this area, the reports on iOverlander are very accurate. Btw, seems as if they are way friendlier when a woman is driving.

July 4th, 2019 by adforget

Just drove through here. About 25 very young police officers standing around. As soon as they spotted me approaching they waved me down. It did seem as though my big Canadian moto prompted them to wave me down, but I certainly can’t say it was strictly because I was foreign as they did have a couple other local motorcyclists pulled over for inspection. Showed them my TIP and offered to show them my passport. They were satisfied simply wth the TIP and sent me on my way. Took about three minutes in total.

May 23rd, 2019 by parcerodondeestamos

They stopped us because we were the only foreign in the line. They asked for ALL documents, when they realize that everything was ok, they start to look the entire car. Finally they tried to give us a ticket because of the glass was broken. It wasn't broken !. Several minutes later they ask us for money while they were writing the ticket.

Nos detuvieron porque éramos los únicos extranjeros en la fila. Nos pidieron TODOS los documentos, cuando se dieron cuenta de que todo estaba bien, comenzaron a mirar todo el auto. Finalmente intentaron ponernos un comparendo disque por un vidrio. Lo que era falso. Varios minutos después nos piden dinero mientras escribían el comparendo.