Taxi Drivers and Undercover Cops

Taxi drivers in Jordan are suppose to abide by the law, most of the time they, do but there are other times they try to take advantage of foreigners. All regular taxis are suppose to have a working meter to be legal. At night you sometimes get drivers who want to charge you ridiculous amounts of money to take you places and they claim their meter isn't working or that it is broken. Both of those things are illegal but most of the time you can't do much or they don't think you can. Last night Joey, Brieanne, and I were coming back from Umm Qais and tried to catch a cab from the bus station to Shmeisani, which is an area close by and should have coast about a dinar. As I got in I asked him to reset the meter and he promptly told me no that it would cost us 4 JD if we wanted to go. I looked at him and told him that he was crazy, got out, and started walking away. At that moment I wished my Arabic was good enough that I could let into the driver about how he was trying to rip me off because I am American and how I know that what he was trying to do was illegal. Unfortunately, I'm not quite at that point so I just walked off to find another taxi. I made it about 20 feet from the taxi when someone shouted at me and I turned around to see a guy walking directly towards us. I stopped to see what he had to say, because Arabs have an amazing ability to observe interactions and then step in to help, or at least to offer their services at a reduced price. The guy that came up to me was dressed like any other Jordanian youth and looked about 20 but as he asked me what happened he pulled out a police badge to show me. I was quite excited since I was just hoping for some justice and couldn't get it from yelling at him in Arabic. I told the cop what happened, how the driver wanted 4 JD for Shmeisani and claimed his meter didn't work. The cop made him get out of the car and then proceeded to write up the ticket on the spot. It was a little tense because the driver started to argue it, but the cop again turned to us and asked us what happened and I told him again and Joey and Brieanne backed me up and that was it, our word was final and the driver got a ticket. Another cop then flagged a taxi down for us and we were on our way. Sometimes justice does occur, even if only for a moment. About 30 minutes later I was taking another cap and the driver tried to rip me off again....if only there was always an observant undercover cop around to fight the flagrant violations of late night taxi drivers.