When getting a ticket for a traffic violation, an Indonesian police officer will often hope to settle the traffic penalty quietly onsite with a “cash donation” rather than following the official rules of a fine.
If you do get the fine then below is a picture of what it looks like. The fine is a carbon copy, numbered tickets that have five colours;
a. Red : you don’t agree with the traffic ticket or want to negotiate a lower penalty and wish to defend yourself in front of a judge at court. The police officer will take your drivers license and/or registration. You will sign the traffic ticket and get the red copy. You will need to attend a court hearing at a set date (usually 14 days after being ticketed). The judge will decide on your penalty which you will need to pay onsite. After payment, you will get your drivers license and/or registration back.
b. Blue : you agree with the traffic ticket and are prepared to pay the maximum penalty. The police officer will take your drivers license and/or registration. You will sign the traffic ticket and get the blue copy. You take the blue copy to a BRI bank where you will pay the fine before the payment due date (usually 14 days). With the BRI payment receipt, you go to the police office (DitLantas) to show that you have paid and collect your drivers license and/or registration.
- Yellow : copy for the police officer
- Green : copy for the court
- White : copy for the archive
These are official fees for several traffic penalties.
- If you are driving a vehicle and you cannot show a valid international or Indonesian drivers license then you may get a one month prison sentence and/or a Rp 250,000 penalty.
- If you are driving a vehicle and you do not have an International or Indonesian drivers license then you may get a four month prison sentence and/or a Rp 1,000,000 penalty.
- If you are driving a motorbike without wearing an SNI (Standard Nasional Indonesia) certified helmet you can get a Rp 250,000 penalty.
Have you had to deal with Indonesian traffic police? What penalty did you pay?
The police in bali are basically just crooks.. They love to target white people and just let everyone else blast by with no helm and most likely no license at all. Ive been stopped in the middle of town and threatened with taking the scoot and like 500,000idr in fines. I didnt have my helmet on so i was basically asking to get targeted even though most of the locals dont wear them.. I ended up giving him 150,000 which he is obviously pocketing for himself.. The second time I was in the middle of nowhere heading to the java side of the island when we came up to a “road block.” Not many white people around this area so of course I get targeted.. He tried to give me the fines and going to court Bull shat but I fed him my own BS saying the scooter rental place said my license was good and that the last cop said the same thing.. I showed him I not only have a valid driver’s license in the U.S but also have a motorcycle drivers license.. After continually not agreing to pay him and saying that it wasnt fair also telling him to pull someone else over and to show me that the locals have thier licenses he must of gave up because he shook my hand, let me take a picture with him and sent me on my way with no fine paid.haha I dont exactly think its best to give them a hard time but dont just cave in and pay them the full amount they are asking because its definitely going in thier pocket. In short.. If you are going to scoot around the island and explore and want to avoid BS charges.. Wear your helmet and get the International drivers license before you come to Bali
When I get stopped I tell the police officer I already got stopped and fined 5 minutes ago and am on my way home. They will mostly let you go 🙂
I was just stopped over by a “police” man in Bali.
He said I was driving through red, which I actually was in a sort of way. I took a short cut to avoid the red light. So I knew I was a little bit in problems.
So I handed him over my driver’s license and he started talking about court and paying up to 900k.
I just answered his questions about where I stay, and he wanted to know if I live here, and I said I was taking the shortcut because I saw someone else in front of me doing the same thing.
He tried to act bossy in a way. But it didn’t scare me of at all. They don’t want to take the process of taking a person through court. It’s too much paper work for them. So I just agreed on going to the court.
Then he asked if I wanted to fix it right here now.
I know the “fine” shouldn’t be higher than 50k rupiah.
So I was silence for a few seconds and then said “yes”. He said I could pay 500k instead of 900k. So I was silenced again. Thinking about the 50k. So I said 50k in Bahasa, Lima Puluh.
I speak a few words Bahasa, so I think he was surprised (which is my own interpretation).
Then he started to laugh and speak some words in Bahasa. So I kept saying Lima Puluh.
He took pictures, or acted that wat, of my driver’s license and the license plate of the scooter. And said that this will go to court. Then I said ok.
He gave me back my international driver’s license and got back on his bike and drove away.
I got no ticket, no nothing.
He didn’t even want to accept my lima puluh ribu.
I see him rushing to two other guys on one scooter with one who wasn’t wearing a helmet. Probably his next victim.
He had a motorcycle with Polizei on it. Later I realised it might have been a fake cop. Cause polisi is the name in Bahasa.
So never pay them. Really! Just grab your balls, if you have them, and stand ground.
If they don’t agree, say that you want to speak to their chief officer to report corruption. They will let you go.
Unless you really broke the law. Then it’s better to pay the lima puluh ribu. And maybe you get lucky like me.
Hi, the cop pulled me over for no helmet, I argued with him and he took the registration and my international license. He then showed the fine cost to me and then told me I had to go to the police station. I said no we can go back to my hotel and speak with the manager who rent the scooter to me. He said your choice is prison or pay 250,000. I pulled out 200,000 and he took it. However, before he let me go he took a picture of my drivers license with his cell phone, has anyone had this happen? Will my identity be stolen now from the corrupt cops?
I have just been stopped in bali riding a moped by a man in a tracksuit top who i over took at less than 40. He pulled us over and said we where speeding and showed us a gold badge under his tracksuit. Took a piece off paper out with fine costs. 2million speeding. I showed him my driving licence then because i had one he asked for passport. I did not have passport on me. So he wanted another 1million. So all together 3million. I said we not have so he asked how much we have. Got purse out we had 800000. So he quickly took all that and off he went. We had no choice but to turn around and go back to hotel. On was back 2 mins later we saw him chasing someone else. We believe he was a fake policeman but what can you do when you are in middle of know where. Total crook.
never encountered civilian clothes policemen doing traffic checks who were not accompanied by normal clothed policemen. and its been always in groups so far.
and as soon as he starts the bargaining or any other way makes it not official… you also have a bargaining point.
any next time, just take 50k or 100k in your hand when you start seeing a checkpoint, try to get by without paying, if nit easy, just hand that money over.
Drink driving are you tested and so what is the penalty and alcohol limit ..
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I have never encountered a road block in Bali for alcohol test. I am also not aware what the limits are (if any).
We just dropped our bags and were driving back to our hotel. We were driving and had to pull over by the police because we didn’t stop in front of the white line. They were saying that we were caught on camera an had to pay 500.000 rupiah!!! We were very disappointed and said that we didn’t have to money. They are very smart because in front of them there was an ATM.
They said that if we didn’t want to pay we have to go to court. We said that we want the receipt of the 500.000 rupiah but they said that they can’t give us a receipt and that if we don’t want to pay we have to go to court. I said that we just want to receipt because they told us there was a camera and otherwise we don’t have prove that we didn’t pay the fine. Suddenly they said that they don’t speak English (weird because before they could speak English… ) they were still saying that we have to pay the 500.000 rupiah or we have to go to court. We asked again for a receipt but nothing… they were only in a police uniform but weren’t wearing a weapon or didn’t have a name… At the end they gave us a paper with our name and the number plate of our motorbike. We asked if they could write the 500.000 rupiah on the paper as well and their name but they didn’t want to do that… because their friends were all standing next to us we just left… we visited Indonesia already 4 times and this is the first time that the police is sooo currupt. When you arrive in the airport they have their slogan that says ‘say no to curruption’… which is very hypocrite….