Police and taxi drivers in cahoots

Sir,

I was recently the passenger in a car driven by my parents to Paphos airport. We were flagged down by a man in civilian clothes near the airport with customary cigarette telling us we could no go further than him and his badly parked car.

My son is disabled and we have a special pushchair for him. The Cypriot was adamant that we were not going any further and an argument ensued where he threw Coca Cola over my parents’ car. Shortly afterwards, a police car came up the road and I flagged it down. At that point, I identified myself as a Chief Inspector with a British police force and produced my identification. A short conversation took place, and the civilian shook hands with the policeman and received a pat on the back before getting in his car and leaving. We were told we could drive on by the Cypriot policeman.

Having researched this issue carefully, I can say that the police – if I can loosely call them that – and the taxi drivers are working in cahoots. These are the same people who leave a loaded Heckler and Koch MPG sub machine gun at an airport desk while going outside for a cigarette, which I also witnessed.

In the UK, I task junior officers to pose as night time revellers to catch out unlicensed drivers by posing as potential passengers. I can also say that, as a force advanced driving instructor, the conduct and driving skills of the majority of taxi drivers is dangerous, bordering on suicidal. Then again, so is the driving of the police in their Isuzu Troopers, one of which I nearly collided with in Troodos.

However, there is no point sorting out the taxi drivers until the police are sorted out – I hope to join the SBA in the next few years. I will join knowing that every Cypriot policeman has close relatives nearby, and that it is the done thing to be ‘lenient’ with friends and friends of friends.

Me on the other hand, old school. Black, white and no grey. The Chief Officer of Paphos police station is aware of my views. He has yet to respond to them.
A word of advice. Anyone without uniform, marked vehicle or credible identification, ignore them, tell them you will call the police, take their photograph if you can and drive on.
Edward Turnbell
Home Counties, UK and Paphos

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.