Can anyone offer advice/experience on dealing with the police/bribes there?
mike
Yes I can! What "Bote" says about not doing anything your not supposed to and you'll be fine, is generally true but not always. I was hustled on a few occasions and the reason it cost me was due to my lack of spanish. However don't let this deter you, as I wouldn't and I am already on my way back down.
First of all, if you don't want to get hustled keep your wits about you. Mexico is way over policed. Don't drink, smoke tea, or urinate in the streets unless you don't mind paying a 100 pesos to buy your way out of it, or just keep an extremely good lookout. These are the three largest reasons people (North Americans) get hustled and have bad experiences.
Secondly and most importanly be VERY careful of what is in your pockets when you step out onto the street. To put it more simply DO NOT walk around with any form of plastic in your pockets (credit card, debit card, ID, ANYTHING!) If you get busted with a credit card or a debit card the police will do everything in their power to take you to a bank machine and get as much money out of you as possible. Wether it is for a bribe or for a ticket. As for the ID, the less they know about you the better. On a number of occasions i was taked to the banks by police officers only for them to get even more frustrated that they wasted their gas to find out I didn't have bank card, BUMMER! Essentially if you dont want to get hustled for it, don't have it on you!
Thirdly if you do get busted, the quicker and sooner you offer a bribe, the better off you will be, and the less your bribe will cost you. However make sure you feel out the cop a little first. About 90% of the police are easily bribed, but feel it out first, the military are VERY hard to bribe, the young kids in the military (20-30) are simply pawns, you cannot bribe them, you may be able to bribe the captain but not at a cheap price, and unless you are doing something really illegal (like smuggling) the military are generally VERY nice and will cause you no problems.
I find the best way to go about the bribe is the following. Whatever you get busted for; drinking, smoking, stealing, speeding, the police are going to do one of two things. They are either going to give you a ticket (which is usually about 1000 Pesos) or if you dont have the money they are going to take you to a holding cell. Both of which I have experienced. If you get a ticket, the best thing you can do is simply ask them;
"Is their any way I can pay this here and now?"
Be very assertive that you would like to pay them right where you got busted, they will prolly make you walk to a spot out of the public eye, but try not to get in the truck because once you are in there, well you go with them. As well, you never pay what they are asking. Police Officers in Mexico make a standard wage of 150 Pesos a day ($12 USD). If you double their wage in a day, their going to be stoked, and also your best friend when this is all over. Don't pull out all ur money at once, a little here, a little there, insist you have no more, then when they refuse to let you go, pull out another 20 or 50 pesos.
I was once pulled over on the streets of Baja for pseeding and fialing to stop at a stop sign that didn't exist. The cost, 1000 pesos. I convinced him to let me pay it on the street, and I told him all I had was 50 pesos. He wanted to take me to the bank, told him I didn't have a bank card. Back and forth we went, as I pulled out a little bit of money at a time untill he finally let me go when I had 150 Pesos. Not only did he let me go but gave me a police escort out of town, like I said, "Your best friend."
Now the other scenario is if you dont have enough money on the street to satisfy the cop, you are likely to be taken to a holding cell. This happened to me. And was quite the experience. Essentially my bail was 300 Pesos. All I had was 20, and I was alone. They will take you in, tell them you need to go in the morning, make up a story, your friends are leaving town and you are alone, w/e. They will usually let you go after 8 hours. After 6 hours in the cell my friends finally found me, once the police realized I had a white girl on the outside who knew me, my time in the cell jumped from 8 hours to 34 hours, and my bail jumped from 300 too 700 Pesos. Sometimes it is best to wait it out.
Finally if you get busted with an illegal substance, whatever that may be. The police will confiscate it. Once you are able to pay your way out, ticket or bribe, or however. The police officer will possibly offer to sell the substance back to you at whatever price he wants, or you can ask go buy it back. Depending on how much your fiending it is up to you wether or not you want to ask for it back at a cost. Personally with my small understanding of spanish and the cheap costs of these substances down their I would not ASK to buy it back, but thats up to you.
I hope all this helps, and dont blame me if any of this gets you into more trouble then when started, but I can tell you I defiantely had to bride a decent amount of Police down there and it never cost me more then 150 pesos on the street and 350 pesos for a 34 hour jail bail out. But Mexico still rocked!
