The value of all fines issued by the Polish police has doubled year-on-year. The average fine is already PLN 326, not PLN 143 as it was in 2021. The fines are mainly paid by drivers.

In 2022, police officers imposed fewer fines than the year before, but the amount almost doubled from PLN 692 million in 2021 to PLN 1 billion 359 million in 2022.

Records are broken by Mazovia, where traffic is heaviest and fines are imposed most frequently – police officers here imposed as many as 603,000 fines for a total of PLN 205 million. The other top regions are Silesia, Wielkopolska and Małopolska. At the opposite extreme is the Lubuskie Voivodeship with 88 thousand fines.

Citing information from the Tax Administration Chamber in Opole, where data from the whole country is collected, the newspaper reports that over 190 thousand drivers were fined 800 PLN last year. Another 245 thousand were fined PLN 1,500 or PLN 1,000 (altogether they accounted for 4.9 % of the total number of those fined). Some had to pay PLN 2,500.

“There are fewer accidents and fatalities, drivers have slowed down. The number of driving licences withdrawn from them for so-called 50+ driving, i.e. exceeding the speed limit by more than 50 km per hour, fell by half – from 50,000 to 25,000,” Robert Opas of the Traffic Bureau of the Police Headquarters told “Rzeczpospolita”. He added that the overall number of driving licences withheld also fell last year – from 85,000 in 2021 to 64,000. The police officer also noted that in 2022, the number of people killed fell below 2,000 for the first time ever.

According to criminologist Professor Bruno Holyst, the new fine tariff is not the only reason for the drop in fines. In his opinion, some drivers have started to drive more slowly to reduce their fuel consumption and thus lower their petrol expenses. He also believes that police officers dissatisfied with their working conditions have started to look at drivers with a more favourable eye.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński