Yeah, police abroad are tricky anywhere you go. If you don't know the mentality /current economic and political stability of the people in the country you're visiting then anything can happen. My experiences are just from Eastern Europe, where we got pulled over for speeding and because they saw that we were Americans they made us pay this ridiculous fee. We would later find out just how ridiculous, but they refused to give our passports back unless we payed them the money. Yeah...that hurt.