I do believe reader Robin Hood's story is true ('Nilai's highway robbers aka men in uniform'). Let me give you two little stories, one involving a colleague and one in which I was personally involved.

First the personal story. We had been out fishing and my friend was gunning the car down a 90 km/h zone at 130km/h. (And yes, we did tell him to slow down but he was the driver and he was too busy chasing the car ahead of us).

We were subsequently flagged down by the police. (The car ahead of us wasn't and got away and when we asked the police why they had stopped us but allowed the other car to get away, we were told rather rudely that they could stop whoever they wanted to). The police then proceeded to tell us that we were driving at the speed of 102 km/h in a 90 km/h zone - which was a load of bull as we were tearing down the road at 130km/h!

Anyway, the famous (or should I say 'infamous') "apa macam? Mau kita tolong?" (How about it, would you like us to help?) statement surfaced. We were told that a ticket and a court appearance would set us back at least RM300 but we could "selesai saja"(settle it) for RM100.

We refused to cough up the money and they refused to write the ticket! The three policemen on duty resolutely refused to write the ticket for half an hour! (Incidentally, this happened in Terengganu). Finally, due to our absolute refusal to pay up, they made an about turn and released us without any summons.

The second story has to do with a former colleague. He was stopped by one of our men in uniform for speeding, and rightly so. He was asked to pay RM50 or face a summons. He looked into his wallet and to his horror, found that he only had RM100 notes.

He looked at the policeman and sheepishly asked if the policeman had change! The policeman told him that there would be no change but because he was now receiving RM100 instead of RM50, he advised my colleague of another speed trap further up the road! Good bargain I suppose.

While I cannot verify the details of the second story, the first one is absolutely true. I suppose that reader Chong Kiat was right to say that one can make quite a bit of money as a policeman and that being a policeman can be like striking a lottery ('Becoming a cop like winning the lottery'). But he has got to remember to get into the traffic section.

However, lest we condemn the entire police force because of the sins of a few, I must recount the time when I overtook a very slow moving vehicle across a double-lane. I was stopped by a policeman who gave me a very stern warning and who advised me never to do it again. In return for his leniency, I can honestly attest that I have not repeated that infringement since and that I have been driving at or below the speed limit just about 100 percent of the time ever since.

There are some good guys in there and while we condemn the bad ones, we need to remember that there are those who are doing an honest day's work.