Police Touristique

God, the homeland, the king

We had just landed at the airport, picked up the rental car and were looking for parking on the seaside promenade, just to wander around and look for a bar for a drink. On leaving a parking lot (there was no more space) we were stopped by a local police patrol (a man and a woman) who kindly asked us for the documents. When they saw that we were tourists they started to look for problems and they told us that we had not respected the stop sign. I explained to him that when I left a parking lot I couldn't go very quickly and that the driveway was deserted; but nothing to do they asked us 400 MAD. It was obvious that they wanted to extort easy money from us. I said I wanted to pay in BC because I didn't have cash. There they threatened to take me to the police station if I don't pay in cash. So they kept my passport and driver's license and I was forced to go to the ATM to withdraw cash. When I came back to pay, obviously they were happy, but they hadn't prepared any tickets. So I asked them for a receipt and there I saw their faces darken because I had trapped them. Indeed they just wanted to take 400MAD from me to put it in their direct pocket! We left towards Essaouira and we no longer set foot in Agadir where we originally wanted to spend at least a week. So following our bad experience we do not recommend you take a rental car and drive in Agadir, you are likely to be defrauded by the local police. Obviously our episode was not isolated. Avoid Agadir. Rather go to Essaouira and Taroudant which are very welcoming cities and much less touristy than Agadir.