How to get out of jail.... for foreigners especially.

Like I said many times over and over again, get to know real dominicans and your life would become alot easier in DR. You will see things get done in half the time and in most times, without bribes.
It means if you are so worried about getting busted by police in DR then why not try to get to know a police coronel? yes, even the police coronels, comendantes can become great buddies in your area. I almost never have any problems becoming a friend of anyone if I want to. Its all up to you. People are people everywhere and they are not so difficult to figure out if you look closely.
Instead of listening to my advice (a person who lives here and deals with dominicans 24/7) people do completely opposite. They make friends with hookers, putas, street con-artists, low life sankies and anyone else who is looked down upon by decent dominicans. These low life street people have no contacts and can't even help themselves much less help you when you are in a jam. These same people will almost always drag you into problems and will get you involved in getting them out or paying for hospital bills etc etc. It seems the poor always seem to get in trouble with police and always seem to be in urgent need of financial assistance. If you know your wife or your girlfriend has to get her friends out of jail routinely then it shows where she is coming from. Police know who is everyone in the city. Sosua & cabarete aren't so huge so the police know who is whom in the local area. They almost never bother if you are going about your normal business (that doesn't involve shady business), they know who is doing what and to whom. Almost all the foreigners who get arrested are the same people who frequent hooker bars and hang out with criminals (ex: cons, hookers, known drug users/ dealers, sankies etc). These people will always drag you into some form of trouble ex: hookers may lead their chulos to rob your house. You may get into a scam and lose money, you might get hurt physically.
Now if you get to know a police or a military coronal then you are pretty much safe from police abuse if you have not commited a crime. The foot police will not bother you if you are a friend of a coronal and carry his signed business card. If you must prove your point to police, just call the coronal on his cell phone and have him sort out the dispute.
Dominicans judge you by the company you socialize with. There is a common saying: show me who you socialize with and I will tell you who you are....". Remember, you are constantly watched in the small city and judged by the locals.
have a good day,
AZB

Not all police / military officers are lambones / chopos as many seem to be. There are some really educated ones around with whom you can feel proud to be in their company. I agree, many coronals can be chopos and one will get embarrassed just being seen with them. They talk loud and make obscene jokes in public. So what, others don't seem to mind it, why should you?
Anyway, I have met a few coronals who seem educated and quite decent in their appearance. Unlike many, they are young and dress sharp. For example: My friend, a coronal, in santo domingo is an airforce coronal but in his daytime job, he is a plastic surgeon who studied overseas. He is rich even by american standard and almost all his clients are foreigners who pay in dollars. As you might have guessed, he is no leech. I never have to treat him for anything, on the contrary, he treats me whenever I show up in santo domingo. He takes me to the most expensive santo domingo restaurants and spends thousands of pesos like pocket change. He is a powerful man in the capital because of his profession and because many generals and their wives are his patients. I feel quite comfortable in knowing that if I get into any unnecessary trouble, I can be helped just by making a phone call.
I try to be a good citizen and hope I never have to take a favor from my friends. In fact, I only ask for favors for my visiting friends who some how seem to find trouble anywhere.
So there you have it, being friends with police / military doesn't have to cost you money; they are also people like the rest of us and are very friendly if you be nice to them. We all need friends and people around us. After-all, we are in dominican republic.

Simpson homer, I didn't think I would have to explain to you what I meant by police connection but it seems I would have to clearify a few things.
\We all know that no one will help you if you are involved in drugs, underage sex play or killing / raping someone. This is all common sense. I repeatedly mentioned that a police coronal will help you if there is an unnessessary police problem ex: traffic dispute, car being taken away, false accusation, a police trick to get money out of you etc etc. Then again I also mentioned that chances are you will be left alone if you don't mix with hookers, pimps, known drug dealers, sankies or your regular street cons, dirt. Police know their business well and they know who is who in the city.
I wouldn't personally be seen sitting with a hooker in a bar even if she saved my life somewhere. I wouldn't be seen walking around with a drug dealer even if we grew up together. These are my rules, and I believe that birds of the same feather flock together. I would be friendly to a gay person but no thanks, he is not hanging with me anywhere. i just don't feel comfortable with hookers, sankies or street scums. I am just not part of this group.
More power to you if you feel like home with your buddies in SD.\

Pavan, I gonna put a tight leash on you this time. I am surprised we haven't gotten our asses kicked by a jealous boyfriend or have gotten shot yet. I know you try really hard but one of us has to be sober.
A warning to all dr1 single folks: you hang around with this guy, make sure you are packing because one of these days he will grab the wrong butt at the wrong time in a wrong place. Needless to say what will happen next.

My first experience with a tough (important) guy in DR came when I was living in Puerto plata, new-comer and didn't speak any spanish. I was introduced this this one fellow who seemed quite friendly towards me but I just didn't like something about him. He seemed like a tough guy who could turn out to be dangerous as well. He would come to my office to talk to me every once in a while but I never threw any crumbs at him to really give him a hand of friendship. Non-the-less, he was persistant and I never knew what he wanted out of me. I guess the guy had never met a pakistani (living in puerto Plata before).
Anyway, moving right along. I had a PC problems so I turned my PC to a young kid who worked in a repair shop. Turns out he got fired and took my PC home for repair. He assured me that he would fix it for half the cost if he does it himself. Then weeks go by and I don't hear a thing from him. I tried to call and his number is disconnected. I call his work and they say they know nothing of him. He simply vanishes from puerto plata. one year goes by I never hear from him. Then one day, I run into the guy. I grabbed him and asked for explanation. He had non, said, he was looking for me all along (BS). Anyway, I go with him to his house to talk to his parents. He became really nervous and tried to talk me out of it. But I pulled him to his house. He promised to hand me back my pc in 2 days. After 2 days, he never seemed to be at home. So I waited outside his house till he arrived. As soon as he arrived I walked into his house with him and simply took back my pc which was in pieces. Then I realized that my TV/video capture card was missing. In was 7in1 TV, video capture card that cost me 300 dollars back in those days. He claimed that he would find it. But when I pressured him I realized it was lost forever. Turns out the kid was also fixing the PC of a local drug dealer and seemed to have damaged or lost his video card. so the drug dealer simply comes in and takes away my expensive card and walks out. Leaves him responsible for it. Now I was the one who got screwed. The kid didn't have the money to recover my card's value. I was simply left in the middle without any options. I was going to call the police but he began to cry and told me that he would get killed by the drug dealer if the police gets involved. Then he told me that the drug dealer was in town and visiting from NYC. The pc is in his house.
On side tracking: The same day, another old german friend comes to my office crying that his dominican live-in girlfriend tried to get money out of him to by a scooter and when he refused, she took away her jewelery and filed a report on him that he had some young girls come over and her jewelery turn up missing. Turn out his girlfriend had found some pictures of bekini underage girls that the old german guy kept in his closet. She claimed that when she was away on weekend, he brought in some young girls to have sex with and then these girls stole her jewelery. Of course, it was all lies and now the police was after him. He came to my office to seek shelter and advice. The man was about 72 yrs old and shaking.
While this was going on and I was seeking a solution, here comes this tough guy. I told him that I didn't want to be bothered as I was talking to my german friend who is really upset over something.
He decides to sit along and insisted in finding out what was happening. He told me that he could help. Since we didn't have any other option or hope we decided to tell him everything about the old man and his girlfriend's issues. He asked my friend to accompany him to the police coronal's office. When they entered in the police station, the coronal was busy and wouldn't see anyone. The guy sends upstairs his ID and to my friend's surprise the coronal comes down to receive them personally. They explain the whole trick the girlfriend was pulling on him. Not only the coronal took back the arrest order, he also called in the girlfriend and settled the whole issue right there and then. Case closed without any bribes changing hands.
When I saw this issue resloved so quickly, I took that guy with me to pay a visit to the young PC technician. Upon arrival he simply grabbed the young tech by his arm and threw him in the car. Ordered him to take him to the drug dealer. As we were approaching the drugdealer's house we see him sitting in a restaurant near his house. The guy walks in and grabs the drug dealer and throws him in the car as well. The drug dealer was a young kid as well. He tells both of them that he wants the video capture card in his hand within 10 mins or both are going to jail right now to spend the entire long weekend inside. Needles to say, my video card was in my hands within 5 minutes and both of the kids couldn't appologize enough for causing all the trouble. Leter the PC tech told me that he never wants to see that guys ever again, he is really dangerous guy in puerto plata. He was shocked to know that he was my friend.
To make the long story short, I started paying more attention to that guy from that day on and pretended to be his good friend. This was 6 yrs ago and I have no idea of his whereabouts at the moment because I moved to santiago a few years ago. This was my first lesson in DR: must know a few important people with power in DR to make your daily life alot smoother.
Have a nice day.
AZB