Every police officer in official uniform has the authority to take legal action against traffic offenders under the Motor Traffic Act, the Sri Lanka Police said on Monday, answering questions that had been circulating on social media about which officers may stop and book a driver.
Police Spokesman ASP F.U. Wootler told reporters that the power to enforce traffic law is not restricted to officers attached to the Traffic Police, the Daily Mirror reported.
Any uniformed officer may take legal action over a traffic violation, he said — including when that officer is performing duties alone.
What prompted it
ASP Wootler made the remarks while addressing the media in response to questions circulating on social media about the authority of police officers to act against traffic offenders.
The filing does not describe the claim being circulated. The two propositions the clarification rejects, read from the answer, are that enforcement belongs only to the Traffic Police as a unit, and that an officer acting alone — without a second officer present — cannot lawfully book a driver. Both are addressed directly.
Why the distinction matters
The Traffic Police are a specialised division, but they are not the only police presence on Sri Lanka’s roads. Officers attached to ordinary police stations, to patrols and to point duty encounter traffic violations in the course of other work. On the position set out on Monday, the uniform rather than the posting is what carries the power.
The “performing duties alone” point is the more practically significant of the two. A driver who believes a single officer cannot act without a colleague present has an apparent reason to refuse to stop or to dispute the charge — and a lone officer at a rural junction is a common enough sight that the question is not academic.
This desk has reported several police enforcement drives this year in which the same powers are exercised, among them the crackdown on illegal vehicle modifications and exhausts and the mandatory registration of 48cc motorcycles.
Not reported
The filing cites no section of the Motor Traffic Act, so the provision conferring the power is not identified and the statement cannot be checked against the text. It does not say whether the clarification responds to a specific incident, a viral video, or a disputed charge, and it does not describe the social media claim it corrects.
It is also silent on the limits. Nothing in the report addresses whether an officer must be on duty as well as in uniform, whether plainclothes or off-duty officers are covered, what the position is for Special Task Force or military personnel assisting at checkpoints, or whether any category of violation is reserved to the Traffic Police. No penalty, fine schedule or procedure is set out.
Sourcing note: this report rests on a single verified newsroom. A search across Ada Derana, NewsFirst, Hiru, EconomyNext, Daily News, Island, Daily FT and Colombo Gazette returned no other filing on the statement, and neither the NewsFirst nor the Hiru front rail carried it at the time of writing. Ada Derana has been unreachable from this desk for 44 consecutive days.
