Fear and intimidation is the name of the game. The goal, is the age old Dominican desire to come out on top in a transaction. $RD 5000 is the standard denomination for firearm extortion by the police. There is room to negotiate, however, the Sgt in this case, needs to pass on the tithes to his superiors for continued protection by them. He needs to get enough to pass some to the others in his posse and to his Lt and CO. The Colonel of the detachment always gets his share and often ends up with the firearm in his desk drawer if the money was not paid immediately. Later negotiations will see the firearm returned for the full $5000 after some representative intervenes on your behalf.
You have to choose, to be a victim or not. Yes, corruption fosters uncertainty in that the person being extorted wishes to get off with the smallest payment possible and doesn't wish to escalate the situation further by being detained. The latter almost never happens and if it does, it is a short term measure to make one final attempt to get the victim to cough up some cash. If you call a lawyer, the lawyer negotiates the amount while you cool your jets and shortly, an amount is reached and off you go, to collect your car, or your gun or just to run home with your tail between your legs.
When you are arrested, the paperwork has to start. There is a representative of the fiscal assigned to each police station. They count the heads of those detained and then count the number of arrest reports to make sure the numbers match. If they don't there are issues. With only an allegation of wrongdoing and no supporting evidence, the fiscal will order you released immediately upon learning of your presence. Even a trumped up charge where the PN assert that you are a terrorist will get you hearing before the fiscal in a few hours assuming it's not the middle of the night. Otherwise it will be next morning.
The PN do not want to be standing in front of the fiscal spouting a story that is unsupportable. If such a situation does play out, the fiscal tells the cops they are idiots, orders you released and your property returned. If you do nothing else, eventually everything is as it should be. If you are in a hurry, of course the PN offer a VIP service for a fee and you get your stuff back immediately as opposed to later that day or the next. Sorry the Colonel isn't here to release your pistola, come back tomorrow...
Most of the time it never goes this far but sometimes it does unfortunately. That's the game.
If you are going to pay, then get it out of the way on the spot at the first opportunity. If you choose not to be a victim, then go all in, refuse to pay, refuse to hand over your firearm, refuse to go to the police station, refuse to get out of the vehicle, take out your phone and pretend to dial a number and begin talking to your lawyer, military friend or god himself.
The extortion will end when it is clear that you cannot be persuaded to take the easy out they offer. They can't win if they arrest you, they generally don't want to cause you harm, they just want to use your fear of the process and lack of knowledge against you to obtain your agreement to conclude the extortion.
I can't say with a straight face that the PN who do this type of thing aren't stupid. But I can say, they know the limits that they can approach without crossing that will see them protected by their superiors because usually the returns outweigh the risks. No one is really prepared to put you in front of the fiscal or a judge for reasons that are not justifiable, as they will get their hands smacked.
You need to push back enough that you are no longer considered worthy of their continued attention and the situation will go away immediately, or steadfastly refuse to comply and if you do get detained and you continue to refuse to play, it'll be over in about 24 at most.
You do need to let someone know that you have been detained and having a lawyer or even a Spanish speaking friend show up at the station is usually enough to hurry the eventual resolution along.
If you give in and pay, don't be surprised if it happens again. If you push back, you won't have any further problems from that detachment again, as there are lots of other fish to introduce to the frying pan that won't flop about making things difficult. They all talk to each other and word spreads quickly that you are too big to catch with a fly rod.
Not easy for a foreigner to do the first time, but like most things, it gets easier with practice.
