The Kabul Kotwali office is built alongside the dome of the Arak bazar, the newest bazar in the city, which is close to the Arak palace, and where the best goods in Kabul are to be obtained. There are, besides the chief Kotwali office, several Kotwali (police) stations in the different streets in Kabul, and other police stations, which are principally for the purpose of stopping runaways, and to collect the custom duties on all goods entering the country, are placed along all the chief roads right up to the borders of neighbouring states, and in this way the police are able to keep a check on all persons leaving or entering the country. In Kabul itself all custom duties are collected by a special department appointed for that purpose. In each police station is a guard of seven Kotwali sepoys (policemen), including the havildar or sergeant, who is supposed to be a man who can write but very often cannot, and so has a friend or relation among the men with him who writes all reports. There are other officers higher in rank than the havildar, and all of them, officers and sepoys (police), follow the usual custom of the country in taking advantage of their position, in order to abstract money or goods from all the people they are brought into official contact with, and to invent excuses to do so in other cases. It is a common occurrence for a person caught in the act of committing an offence against the law to bribe the Kotwali sepoys to let him go free, and any of the sepoys will do this, provided there are no witnesses who can give information to a higher officer and so make trouble.