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Tourist Police Harass Tourists, Not Criminals
Posted by Editor | September 5, 2007 | Categories: Crime & Punishment, Opinion | Comments Off
It’s not always the criminals that are a problem. Sometimes it is the police. Recently on more than one occasion local Puerto Viejo Tourist Police have been observed shaking down tourists that are caught smoking marijuana on Cocles Beach. They wait and watch to see who is lighting up a joint and then proceed to threaten them with arrest hoping that the tourist will just pay them off.
Local businesses (especially hotels) are enraged. They can not believe all the time and effort they have been doing in working with police (both tourist and regular police) in order to combat and prosecute criminals and this is how tourist police are spending their efforts.
Local security representatives have expressed their concern with police officials and they were informed that the Tourist Police were not adequately supervised.
Local security representatives are now encouraging all hotels that have guests that have been harassed by police for bribe money to encourage guest to participate in pressing a charge against them. They are also encouraging residents and businesses to ask local police what is going on with these types of incidents and what types of programs they are involved in protecting tourists rather then harassing them.
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