Unmarked Police Cars

“Hi, can you please post what to do in a situation where you are stopped by unmarked car who are claiming to be Guardia civil but you don’t believe them to be.. Thank you”.

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The Traffic Police sometimes use unmarked cars for patrolling roads, here are some of the characteristics that show you how to differentiate a police unmarked car:

1. In the front there are flashing red and blue lights. (A red light means; STOP).

2. At the rear there are the same lights, and a lettered matrix sign which shows the words “GUARDIA CIVIL, ALTO”, “G.CIVIL TRAFICO, STOP”. The message can be modified depending on who is using the vehicle.

3.The Traffic Police always wear uniforms when they are patrolling the roads.

If you have committed a traffic offence you can be fined and if you do not have NIE number (only passport), you will have to pay the fine on the spot. Before paying the fine, you will receive it, and you can read in Spanish the traffic offence committed and the price you have to pay.

At the bottom of the fine, you will find the Id of the policeman who wrote the fine.

So if you are stopped by a Traffic police unmarked car, you can see how there have to be 2 uniformed police officers inside the car. If you have any doubts if they are real policemen, call 062 (Guardia Civil), and tell them the plate number of the car to check if it is a real police car.

In the Traffic Police there are 2 different formats for the fines:

1- The new format, which is made on a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant – computer).

2- The old format, which is made on a paper model, and only needs to be filled in.

When the PDA does not work, or there are connection problems, they use the old format, but remember that there are NO other official formats, so be aware of fake police who want to get money from you. Call 062 or 112 if you know they are fakes.