Filenews 10 January 2026 - by Michalis Chatzivasilis
The complaints from the Traffic Police cameras in the first four years of operation of the photo-marking system are approaching one million, with almost only one in two out-of-court notices having been paid.
According to the latest data obtained by "F", most complaints were made this year after reaching almost 270,000, which shows that drivers did not come to their senses four years after the first cameras were installed on the roads. Also, the data shown by the numbers according to which one in two paid their fine, shows the gaps and weaknesses in the detection and service of out-of-court documents, with the system in need of immediate improvement.
As can be seen from the data of the Traffic Police issued by the management company, in 2022, the first year of operation of the photo-marking system with a few cameras (fixed and mobile), 79.288 out-of-court notices were issued, of which 57.438 were paid and another 21,850 remain pending either service or registration of the case in the courts.
In 2023, the year when the system was fully operational with 110 cameras, 168,061 out-of-court notices were issued, of which 103,831 were paid, while another 64,230 remain for service or have been or will be registered in the courts. In 2024, the upward trend of complaints continued, after 256,704 out-of-court notices were issued, 140,347 were paid and another 116,362 remain pending.
In 2025, until November 31, the system issued 269,127 out-of-court documents, of which less than half were paid, since only 105,373 paid them, while another 163,754 remain pending. This picture shows a tendency of drivers not to comply with the rules in general and to be denounced by the cameras and this has been helped by the fact that the system has been demonized from the beginning due to errors and other incidents in relation to the way drivers are controlled, mainly by vans and vehicles with mobile cameras, but also the arrow when turning right from fixed cameras.
Also, the reduction in fatal road collisions recorded in the first two years of operation of the system has changed in 2024 and 2025, as there is an increase in fatalities, which is attributed to the familiarity of drivers and other factors not related to the cameras. Most driver complaints come from mobile cameras and concern exceeding the speed limit, while from fixed ones, most complaints concern speeding and violation of the red light.
Currently, the Police is promoting the installation of software that will allow its members to carry out checks for unserved extrajudicial documents from the crossing points in the occupied territories, after it has been found that Turkish Cypriots who are reported by the system do not pay their out-of-court order, while Greek Cypriots also enter and leave the occupied territories, possibly going to the casinos, but they do not receive their out-of-court bills to pay them off.
The fact that 366,000 complaints remain "orphans" since either the offenders did not come to receive their out-of-court notices or are not located or they received them but were not paid, makes the system two-speed: Those who consciously pay their out-of-court notices realizing their mistake and those who strategically avoid receiving them and therefore paying them, possibly continuing to break the law on the streets. It is for this reason that the submission to the Parliament of the bill drafted by the Ministry of Transport, in which, among other things, a series of measures are promoted for the service of out-of-court documents in other ways, such as messages on mobile phones or e-mails. Efforts are being made to connect the system to the government portal Cylogin, so that the details of the offenders can be obtained from there to make it easier to identify.
