Robert posted this today and I honestly don't know what to think. I can see upsides and downsides. I guess it depends on the cop and, as we all know, relationships with Dominicans can turn sour very quickly and for tiny reasons.
What will you do, Robert, when he asks you to "loan" him RD$10000 for his daughter's eye operation (and this could well be a genuine need). If you give him the money you will be expected to cough up in future for every emergency. If you refuse, do you want to offend a cop? Once he has seen your posh house you cannot honestly say that you can't afford the money.
Certainly I would want to know any Dominican male very well before I invited them into my house.
Where I live, Billy's novia invites cops in for a beer and sometimes a meal and says it could come in useful to be on friendly terms. Billy, who has a lot of common sense experience of living down here, is less convinced. Mind you, he is paying for the beer!
The other factor is that just when you have established a real or presumed friendship, the cop may be transferred to a different town. They move them around an awful lot to try and prevent corruption, or more accurately, to make sure the proceeds of corruption are going to the right people.
What are the views and experiences of other ex-pats living in the DR?
I don't have an opinion myself, just kicking ideas around.
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