I, like most children, was raised to respect the police. As a teen I was taught how to behave when stopped by a police officer. I was told that you turn off your radio, you role down your window, if it’s at night you turn on the dome light of your car, you place your license, insurance and registration on your lap and put both hands on your steering wheel. I was told to always be respectful, to never argue and most of all, to never get out of the car unless the officer asks you to.
In the DRC, you can forget everything that you thought you knew about how to conduct yourself with the police! Let me ask you a question, if you were to blatantly do something wrong in front of your local Sharif, and got pulled over for it, how would he react if you offered him fifty cense ($.50) to just look the other way? In DRC, that is the standard way of operating for most drivers!
What would happen to you if a police man, on foot, stepped into the middle of the road, in say Denver, to pull you over and instead of complying you just kept driving and almost ran the police man over as you continued on down the road? In America…jail…in DRC…nothing!
One last question, what would happen if a police officer were to pull you over and tell you that you were speeding. For anyone who was raised like I was, you would push a little bit to try to get out of it, but if you were speeding, most likely you would take the ticket! In DRC, if you are speeding, first the officer tries to get money out of you as a bribe to let you go. At this point most people just pay. But there are a handful of people with strong moral convictions who refuse and that is when the fun starts! The next part can take several directions…I have seen drivers and police standing on the side of the road shouting at each other. I have seen others actually have the police man get into the car to force the driver to go to the police station…there are many different things that can happen. What would you do if a police man got into your car while you were pulled over?
Because of this we have been faced with a difficult question. What is the best way to handle these police? When they stop you, you are not in a dangerous situation. They don’t have guns but it can get a bit frustrating being pulled over 5 times a day, especially when you haven’t done anything wrong! As I have been asking advice of different people, I receive many different answers. Some tell me to just keep driving, and they will move. Others say not to do that. They say to pull over and show the officers the documents through the window of the car but not to give them the documents. Others say to give the documents. And still others say to go to the government and request a special pass that goes in the window which tells the police not to stop you (but I have been told those are often ignored).
What do I do? This is a difficult one! I don’t yet speak enough French or Swahili to talk my way out of a problem. This also means that if I were to go to the police station I most likely would not be able to talk to the Chief…this is a difficult situation!
I think what we have decided now is that we will continue to stop for the police and we will continue to be friendly and instead of showing the documents through the window (which makes them very mad) we will give them to the officer. That will give him the opportunity to take them and then we will be able to meet the Chief of Police and hopefully make a new friend for the future.