Traffic cop passes chief's bribery test

Traffic cop passes chief's bribery test

JAKARTA (JP): City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto recently rode his Harley Davidson motorcycle incognito, to test one of his traffic officers in Senayan. After purposefully going the wrong way in a one-way street, Hindarto tried to bribe his way out of trouble.

Much to his pleasure, the officer, who did not recognize the police chief under the helmet, refused the Rp 50,000 bill he tried to pass in place of his driving license, which he claimed he had left at home.

Recalling the incident he had on Sunday a week ago, Hindarto told reporters that the officer then asked for some kind of identification.

"So I took out my ID card and gave it to him," Hindarto said. "After carefully inspecting the card, the officer stood to attention and gave me a military salute."

Hindarto, whose favorite past time includes riding on his big bikes, did not identify the officer that had passed the bribery test.

He also praised the officer for following proper procedures in stopping traffic violators, including informing the motorist of the error he had committed.

Traffic police have earned a bad reputation following various reports in the past that they would let off, for a price, motorists who violated traffic regulations.

Hindarto, whose term as chief of city police ends soon, has been campaigning to clean up the image of the police and has threatened stiff penalties for any officer found accepting bribes.

Asked whether the traffic officer in the Sunday incident had let him off without punishment because of his rank, Hindarto's chief spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Haryoko quickly hushed the reporters and said, "the chief was testing the officer."

When another reporter asked whether Hindarto had been insistence enough in trying to bribe the officer, the police chief simply chuckled. (bsr)