Night shift

Yesterday was my first night shift (17:00 to 01:00). The local police had information of a possible transfer of weapons between the Dominican and Haiti within the next hours or days. (I was told by other UNPOLs that information here is usually fairly broad and lack somewhat of details). At 20:00 the local police set up a check point on one of the bridge on the main road near the border. Fortunately we had electricity so the only 2 street lights in the area were on which provided enough light for the officers to be seen by the motorists. They have no flashlights, reflective vests or any other means to alert the motorists of their presence beside 2 green construction cones in the middle of the road. To check the load of a truck or the back of a vehicle, they are using a small light from their cell phone...? After only few minutes at this location, an individual on a motorbike came through the check point, slowed down but obviously didn't plan to come to a full stop. One of the local police officer forced him to stop by grabbing the handle bar of the motorbike and an another grabbed a hand gun from the left waistband of the rider. All this went within few seconds. Seeing the seized weapon I was really on my guard not knowing who we were dealing with. Few minutes later the rider had his gun returned to him and was allowed to go. Since everything was in Creole I did not really understood what took place so I asked the officer in charge. He explained to me that this individual was in fact an off duty police officer but like most police officers here he carries his service pistol (police officers here are apparently often targets of reprisals) but he obviously should have come to a full stop and identify himself. After being given the lesson by the officer in charge he was let go. According to what I was explained, it seems that off duty police officers are in fact a source of trouble. Too much booze and an heated argument can (and did in the past) turn out deadly in the blink of an eye. The rest of the evening was rather slow. As the hours were passing by, the traffic was reducing drastically and no weapons were ever found beside the off duty officer's hand gun.