Police in Iceland manages to collect only 45% of speeding tickets given to foreign travelers. With insufficient resources police relies on people's good conscience.
Police have trouble read Cyrillic and non-Latin alphabets
Speeding tickets issued by speeding cameras along the highway have proven especially hard to collect, as the cameras record the license plate number of offending motorists. When the plate belongs to a car rental the police must rely on information the traveler has given to the car rental in order to send the ticket to the offender. The police, however, have in many cases had found it difficult to track down the correct addresses of the travelers in question.
Guðrún Hauksdóttir a police officer with the Police in Stykkishólmur in Western Iceland, where data from roadside cameras is processed, told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV that one reason is that travelers frequently write their addresses in hand in their own alphabet, which can be difficult to decipher for police officers. It has proven particularly difficult to collect fines from Russian and Chinese motorists.
With insufficient numbers of officers, Police relies on people’s conscience
In other cases travelers have put down their hotel as an address, and tracking down the correct home address can be extremely time consuming. “We simply don’t have the necessary number of people” Guðrún tells RÚV.
When police have the correct addresses it can still be difficult to actually collect the fines, as people simply fail to pay.
“We appeal to people’s good conscience when other means at our disposal fail. The car rental companies provide us with people’s addresses and we send the fine to their home address. Of those whose addresses we find, only about 45% pay.”
People driving without license plates
Guðrún also tells RÚV that the Police has noticed an increasing number of cars driving without license plates on the front. In those cases cameras understandably cannot record the license plate number of a speeding car.
Some car rentals seem to have told motorists that they do not need to have a license plate on the front of the car. This is not true, however, as there is a 10,000 ISK fine (75 USD/68 EUR) for driving with only one license plate. Motorist who are stopped without a license plate on the front of the car are stopped and made to move the back plate to the front.
Police in Iceland manages to collect only 45% of speeding tickets given to foreign travelers. With insufficient resources police relies on people's good conscience.
Police have trouble read Cyrillic and non-Latin alphabets
Speeding tickets issued by speeding cameras along the highway have proven especially hard to collect, as the cameras record the license plate number of offending motorists. When the plate belongs to a car rental the police must rely on information the traveler has given to the car rental in order to send the ticket to the offender. The police, however, have in many cases had found it difficult to track down the correct addresses of the travelers in question.
Guðrún Hauksdóttir a police officer with the Police in Stykkishólmur in Western Iceland, where data from roadside cameras is processed, told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV that one reason is that travelers frequently write their addresses in hand in their own alphabet, which can be difficult to decipher for police officers. It has proven particularly difficult to collect fines from Russian and Chinese motorists.
With insufficient numbers of officers, Police relies on people’s conscience
In other cases travelers have put down their hotel as an address, and tracking down the correct home address can be extremely time consuming. “We simply don’t have the necessary number of people” Guðrún tells RÚV.
When police have the correct addresses it can still be difficult to actually collect the fines, as people simply fail to pay.
“We appeal to people’s good conscience when other means at our disposal fail. The car rental companies provide us with people’s addresses and we send the fine to their home address. Of those whose addresses we find, only about 45% pay.”
People driving without license plates
Guðrún also tells RÚV that the Police has noticed an increasing number of cars driving without license plates on the front. In those cases cameras understandably cannot record the license plate number of a speeding car.
Some car rentals seem to have told motorists that they do not need to have a license plate on the front of the car. This is not true, however, as there is a 10,000 ISK fine (75 USD/68 EUR) for driving with only one license plate. Motorist who are stopped without a license plate on the front of the car are stopped and made to move the back plate to the front.
