Robocop

 

Our daily walks around Baku afford us unique opportunities to see the everyday workings of life here in the big city. One curious practice we have noted on several occasions concerns how the police pull people over for traffic violations. Armed with what appears to be the latest technology and equipment, law enforcement here ride in style with new vehicles, carry state of the art radio equipment, and enjoy a wide variety of support services to assist them in their task. Baku is, for the most part, a safe place to walk and conduct everyday affairs, with what seems to be a low crime rate for such a large metropolitan area. The police vehicles are obviously equipped with sirens, but for the most part police just seem to yell at people through their public address systems when attempting to pull cars over or correct a behavior. For example, the other day a car ran a red light right in front of a police car at an intersection. Instead of flashing their lights or turning on the siren, the police simply yelled at the guy to pull over - which we did immediately and waited for the police to pull up behind him. Other examples include police sitting behind vehicles and telling them to move over so they can pass through, or police yelling at pedestrians for blocking traffic - telling them to move it along. From our hostel, we can hear street sounds at night, and the Police are yelling at people all night long. It seems to be working, so it is a hard practice to knock. Who knows, maybe getting a good yelling at might help with some of the traffic problems in the US?