Jakarta Java Kini - Jakarta's City Magazine

It isn’t easy being a traffic police office; so let’s cut the guys on the beat a little slack

Like just about anybody else who regularly drives around Jakarta, I find that I have little love for the city’s traffic police. Rather than melindungi dan melayani (to serve and protect), they more often than not seem intent on making life on the road even more inconvenient (not to mention expensive) than it already is. Experienced drivers will tell you to be extra careful around hotspots such as the Hotel Indonesia roundabout, where police often lie in wait to pounce on unwary drivers, pull them over for some real or imagined infraction, and pocket a nice amount of uang damai (peace money), which you were going to buy lunch with.

This endless mission to get motorists to open their wallets always gets worse towards the end of the month, when the previous month’s salary starts to wear thin and the next payday is yet to roll around. It’s no wonder then that various tourist guides suggest that you always keep a large banknote tucked in with your driver’s license and vehicle registration documents.