The DGT (national traffic department) is sick and tired of unmarked police vehicles being driven with reckless impunity, expecting the traffic authorities to cancel the traffic fines.

Consequently, it doesn’t matter one hoot whether a plainclothes policeman has stuck a removable blue light on his roof to show that it is an official car; if the driver cannot demonstrate that he was on urgent official business the Driving Department will hand the traffic fine over to the Policia Nacional, Guardia Civil, or whatever service the offending vehicle belongs to.

We’re talking about all kinds of traffic offenses: jumping a red light, speeding or illegal manoeuvres – if they can’t demonstrate that there was a very good reason for it, the fine ends up on their boss’s desk.

Oh, and they lose points off their driving licence just like everybody else, no matter if they are police, secret agents from the National Intelligence, or even the Prime Minister’s chauffeur.

In the words of the Head of Dirección General de Tráfico, María Seguí Gómez ,”the days when a policeman in civvies and in an unmarked car could drive along the hard shoulder in an traffic jam, just because he is late for work, are over.”