All police teams authorized to issue traffic fines with new regulation

ANKARA

In addition to traffic police, all police units and gendarmerie will now be able to fine drivers who do not abide by traffic rules, as per a circular note issued by the Interior Ministry.

The official letter has already been sent to the relevant authorities across Turkey’s 81 provinces, with the implementation kicking off in the southern province of Mersin last week.

Accordingly, 6,000 police officers on duty in Mersin were trained on road safety management and were each handed out “violation of traffic rules forms.” Once the relevant police officer determines that a driver is in violation of the traffic rules, then they will be able to fill in the relevant form and send them to the authorities for the fining procedure to finalize. Mersin police officers were reported to have taken action against 800 drivers so far within the context of the regulation.

The regulation came into effect after officials formed the opinion that traffic police officers were not enough in numbers to implement existing traffic rules and therefore decided to extend the authority of fining drivers to all police teams, including undercover officers.

The regulation seeks to curb traffic accidents in the country, which are due to people using mobile phones while driving and changing lanes in a way that put the lives of others at risk.