Police are advancing the upgrade of traffic law enforcement standards, setting a deadline for the 'warn before fine' period to end on 31 March 2026. Since January, warnings have been issued over 99,000 times, with the highest number for the offense of not wearing a helmet.
On 24 February 2026, Pol. Gen. Samran Nualma, Deputy Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police and Director of the Traffic Management Center, National Police Agency, revealed that yesterday Pol. Gen. Kittirat Phanphet, Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, assigned him to preside over the ceremony awarding plaques of honor to units with excellent performance in preventing and solving road accidents for 2025, and to chair the 2/2026 traffic management meeting and the Traffic Management Center meeting.
The meeting included the Traffic Management Center team of the National Police Agency and representatives from related units, held at Sriyanont Room, 2nd Floor, Building 1, National Police Agency, also conducted via video conference. Following the Commissioner-General's directives on traffic law enforcement, the implementation was divided into three phases:
1. Short-term (urgent) phase focuses on publicizing and educating about traffic laws, promoting traffic discipline, and instructing toproceedover a reasonable period.
2. Medium-term phase involves strict enforcement of traffic laws on the top 10 major offenses and those causing public distress.
3. Long-term (system establishment) phase involvesintroducingtechnology to support traffic operations.
The National Police Agency has implemented the first phase (urgent) by issuing the 'warn before fine' measure from 27 January to 31 March 2026. The data shows warnings issued for all offenses within the traffic officers' authority through the PTM system between January and 4 February 2026 totaled 99,297 times...
The top five offenses warned are: not wearing a helmet 47.3%, no driving license 16.8%, not wearing a seatbelt 9.8%, speeding 7.0%, and others such as no license plate, using a vehicle not matching its registration type, and transporting uncovered goods 4.6%.
Pol. Gen. Samran expressed gratitude to all levels of command and police officers. who have sacrificed, dedicated, and cooperated infacilitatingtraffic management during the 2026 New Year festival and the recent House of Representatives election, ensuring smooth operations. He alsoemphasizedcontinuing the 'warn before fine' practice according to the 2026 traffic administration policy of the Police Chief, which will endon31 March 2026 before moving to stricter law enforcement in the next phase.
He further ordered police station chiefsand traffic chiefstoinstructtraffic officerswho have issued tickets but have not received fine payments, and whose cases will expire this year, topreparedocuments forsubmissionto the prosecutor forlegal action against all such offenders under the law governing fines converted to penalties.He also ordered the traffic management team at the National Police Agency to accelerate training and testing in traffic knowledgefor
police officers newly assigned to traffic positions or duties at police stations or divisions. All units should disseminate knowledge of standard operating procedures (SOP) concerning checkpoint setup and related National Police Agency directives.This is to ensure that traffic officerscan perform their duties correctly, efficiently, transparently, and safely, building public confidence. The legal and traffic innovation team at the Traffic Management Centeris also monitoring progress on revising the draft MOU with the Department of Land Transport regarding electronic data linkage to enhance enforcement efficiency of the Land Traffic Act, to meet the specified timeline.
