Another way traffic police make money on Minsk drivers

A reader of charter97.org website has told about another corruption scheme of traffic police.

We offer the text of the letter received by our editorial office:

“I have read your article about the outrage at traffic police when exams are passed. I would like to tell about one more corruption scheme of traffic police, which develops widely in Minsk.

I parked under a sign “No waiting!” near Kamennaya Horka metro station. Two illegal taxi cars stood there as well. In 15 minutes I returned, my car was not there anymore, and illegal taxi drivers, who stayed there, civilly told me that my car was removed by a tow truck, and what I should do in this situation (call 102 and there I would be told at which impound storage facility I can find my car).

I called 102 and found out where my car was. I took a taxi to bring it back. First I was waiting for a traffic police officer for an hour. You should see how he arrived to the impound yard, he behaved as if he owned the place, his car honked so that he could be heard while he was far away. He almost opened the door by his foot. He signed a document that I am to pay a fine of Br150,000. He made an entry in my speeding ticket and send to the workers of the impound yard to pay for the services of the tow truck and for the day spent by the car there, Br430,000 in total. The whole thing cost Br 630,000 to me (including the taxi) and 2 hours lost by me.

So, how it works? After your parking violation, no one will come near your car, even if a traffic police officer will see you. As soon as you left the car and got out of sight, an illegal taxi driver is to inform a traffic police officer about you (he is allowed to stand under the sign for that). A tow truck arrives at a speed of a racing car, takes away your car, and the traffic policeman writes a document about vehicle recovery, as time is their money. If you return before the tow truck took away your car, you have a right to pay the fine at the spot and take your car.

After that they do not hurry. Everything is ready. One tow truck can remove at least 12 cars in one day, and about 5 tow truck work at one impound yard (for instance, at the railway station). As a result, they earn a pretty sum of money, and a traffic police gets a cut. That’s the way “our police defend us”. That is why traffic policemen started to work around the clock. By the way, such impound lots are private property, with a limited liability company proprietary form.

It would be great if you write an article about that, so that people could read, stay alert and do not feed parasites. Thank you.”