How to Evade the Police (Bribe):

South America, the one continent where you can actually elect not to stop for the police, escape them and yes, even BRIBE them. Peru is absolutely no exception to this rule.

I could get into how broken the police system is in Peru, how UN-modern it is, and how I think it needs a major overhaul from the top down, but that’s not what this post is about, this post is about how for 3 days my husband managed to avoid paying the police a S/.5 bribe each time he was stopped and what we learned.

My husband and I have a joke, we call the “police” in their patrol cars “vultures.” Why do we call them vultures? Because they are sitting there scouring around the streets in their cars for a free meal. The Peruvian culture has unfortunately accustomed the police to this bad habit, but one Peruvian (or foreigner) at a time can change this abusive practice.

Evasion Tactics & Police Habits

Driving around Lima quickly teaches you the habits of the police. Here’s what we learned three days on the road.

A.) The ones you need to watch for are the police in the “Patrulleros” or Patrol Cars (normally gray colored) or on the bikes. They only pull people over to get a bribe out of them, rarely are they enforcing any laws. All the others, such as police officers directing traffic are nothing to worry over, “Fughettaboutit”. They will not go outside the scope of their job description to hassle you over “traffic violations.”

B.) The police normally stick to the outside shoulder of the road (normally the right), if you are on the very inside (far left) then the chances of them following you are very slim, especially in traffic. They are normally too lazy to follow you for the bribe.

C.) Expect the police to hassle private cars close to lunch hours and during the night time. They are looking for “lunch money”, “beer money,” or “mistress money.” During morning hours, especially after holidays, the police are sleeping off hangovers or are eating breakfast in the street.

D.) Don’t make eye contact with a police vehicle. That is an open invitation for them to pull you over to question you for no reason.

E.) Speed past the police vehicle (not Speed Racer fast now) or try to keep pace and hide behind a larger vehicle if you must pass a police check point or a sitting patrol car.

In Case You Get Pulled Over

A.) Be friendly and cooperative, but DO NOT get out of the vehicle to talk to the police. There is no need to and it can be dangerous.

B.) Have your driver’s license and Identification (DNI, CE, Legalized copy of Passport) in hand. If you do not have an International driver’s license or your Brevete then tell them that you just returned from out of country or you are visiting. You have 15 days to drive on the driver’s license from your country of origin. Since the police do not have computers to verify this, they will usually drop the issue with you once you inform them of this exception. The reason for a legalized copy of your document prevents the police from walking away with your original. They have been known to steal documents. They CANNOT issue a ticket against a foreign driver’s license, so that’s one less thing for them to try.

C.) Have SOAT in hand. Even if you don’t have it, it’s really an administrative issue, you tell them that you are going to purchase or renew it. If there was an accident you would personally be liable for the damages, plus the other vehicle’s SOAT would cover the expenses, so you’d have to hit a Pedestrian or another vehicle without SOAT to get into trouble.

D.) If you do not have your Plate or Placa yet, but you need to drive around, get a Permiso from the Ministerio de Transportes, this usually takes 4 days to acquire. You can still get past this issue (if you don’t have the Permiso) and tell the police that the dealer told you you could drive around, just be sure to have your receipt of purchase in hand. Without the plate you cannot get SOAT, but you are in TRAMITE which technically means that you are abiding by the rules.

E.) If the police tell you to follow them to the Commissary or Comisaria, CALL THEIR BLUFF and agree to follow them. Guaranteed they will stop a few blocks from the Comisaria to ask you a couple of questions and then ask for a bribe. The fact is, it’s too much paperwork for them to do if they take you, which means they have less time to fish for bribes.

F.) You can “agree” to pay the police a bribe, but show them that you are going to record it on you cell phone w/camera. They will back down almost right away since they know it could mean trouble for them. If you can, video record your entire interaction with them.

G.) Another way to bluff is to tell the police that you are a lawyer. The police do not know the laws that well and lawyers normally tend to scare them off.

H.) QUESTION THEM! That’s right, ask them “why?!” One police officer in Miraflores told us he was going to take our car to be impounded at the Comisaria, when my husband asked him “Why?!” He didn’t have a reason. This is Peru, you can argue or talk back to the police!

I.) Finally, if they keep insisting or fishing for the bribe (this is obvious, because they will tell you the same thing over and over again) you kindly say (in your best Spanish) “Thank you, how nice of you, I’m going to go home now, have a good day/evening.” They will get the clue and walk back to their police car.

Conclusion

The police can surely be a hassle in Peru, and it is quite obvious that they aren’t really policing anything. That’s an unfortunate downside to this country, but the following tips above should help you avoid the hassle and even the bribe. Please, DON’T PAY BRIBES to the police! You only encourage the practice! Make them work for an honest living like the rest of the world and at the same time stay TWO-STEPS ahead of them.

The best way to avoid a bribe is to always stay in the “right.” If they don’t have a reason to pull you over then TELL THEM! They don’t have computers, they don’t have cameras, they don’t have radar guns and they don’t have witnesses, they are pulling you over to waste your time and fish for a bribe.

Once they realize that they don’t have a legitimate reason and YOU KNOW IT then you should be on your way bribe free.

By the way, when was the last time you’ve seen a high speed police chase in Peru? It doesn’t exist.

And now for your laughing pleasure…the following videos:

You don’t need to speak Spanish to understand how ridiculous this is.