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Four cops questioned by Gorontalo Police for demanding illegal levies
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Gorontalo Police members stand during a ceremony in this file photo. (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari)
F
our police officers are being questioned by the Gorontalo Police’s internal affairs department after they were caught demanding illegal levies from motorists.
The four were caught in an operation by the internal affairs department in late September.
Internal Affairs Department officer Comr. Syafrudin S. Sakti and his team members carried out impromptu inspections on the streets in Gorontalo and found four policemen asking for bribes on the trans-Sulawesi road.
“The four were caught asking for illegal levies from motorists on the road between Gorontalo and North Sulawesi,” Gorontalo Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Mosyan Nimitch said Tuesday.
The four were from Atinggola Police and ranked from Brigadier to First Adjutant Inspector. From the four the internal affairs confiscated five Rp 10,000 (US76 cents) banknotes, six Rp 5,000 notes, 82 Rp 2,000 notes and 20 Rp 1,000 notes, in total Rp 264,000.
Mosyan refuted a media report saying that the Gorontalo Police were the fifth-worst provincial police force in terms of officers demanding bribes, adding that the data only indicated that the Gorontalo Police were in the top five in terms of willingness to report the practice of bribery within their workforce.
A resident, Yamin, said traffic police demanding bribes from motorists who wanted to avoid punishment for traffic violations was already a public secret.
“They didn’t have to go far to the city’s outskirts. Even inside the Gorontalo city center they could catch many policemen asking for bribes,” he said. (evi)
