US travel blogger films extortion attempt by Balinese police

A travel blogger has filmed the moment he was allegedly extorted by Balinese police for breaking the road rules.

Sawyer Hartman, 26, has been posting videos of his Bali travels for the past two weeks.

In a video posted from his twelfth day on the Indonesian island, he claims to have been threatened with arrest by a Balinese police officer.

Having just come from a tattoo parlour where he and his girlfriend has been freshly inked, Mr Hartman was pulled over by local authorities for not wearing a helmet on his rented scooter.

He then started filming his interaction with the police officers, under the belief that he was doing nothing wrong.

"I almost just got f---ing arrested in Bali or something," Mr Sawyer said in a video blog posted on November 18.

"The Bali police pulled me over and said I wasn't wearing a helmet and I didn't have an international driver's license and tried to take 1.5 million, like, of their dollars from me."

The currency conversion for 1.5 million Indonesian Rupiah was $150 at the time of publication.

Indonesian law states that any person driving a motorcycle who is not wearing a helmet suitable to national standards shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of one month or a fine of 250,000 Indonesian Rupiah ($25).

An international driver's license is also required when riding a motorcycle in Indonesia.

While Mr Hartman was indeed breaking the law, it appears as though the Balinese police officers were looking to line their pockets rather than uphold the law.