On November 11, Minsk /Andrey Asfura - BELTA/. Belarus has started to record traffic violations and hold offenders accountable using video cameras. This was announced today to journalists by Maxim Podberezkin, Deputy Head of the Main Traffic Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. Currently, a data processing center for video recording of traffic violations exists and is functioning, said the Deputy Head of the Main Traffic Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The only issue is a technical delay in launching the system at full capacity. The database has already been created, and the mechanism has been debugged. However, it will take some time to launch the video recording system at full capacity, as it is a technologically complex system and can malfunction in case of errors. The legal aspects of launching the video recording system have been fully worked out. "We do not want to make mistakes, because if malfunctions occur, complaints will also come in," admitted Maxim Podberezkin. Currently, more than 20 cameras are operating in the system, and their number will increase several times in the near future. The Deputy Head of the Main Traffic Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also noted that drivers who have received letters with photos taken by the video recording system have not yet filed a single complaint. In early October, Decree No. 454 came into force in Belarus, which allows for fining car owners for speeding based on data from special photo and video recording devices. According to the document, if a foreign citizen or a stateless person was driving at the time of the violation, their driver's license is confiscated until the administrative penalty is executed, and a report is drawn up. A temporary permit is issued in exchange. However, such a sanction is not applicable to those who permanently reside in Belarus. The decree also provides for the amount of the fine in some cases. For example, the driver of a vehicle owned by a legal entity will be fined at the lower limit. If it is not established in the sanctions of the Special Part of the Code of Administrative Offenses, the fine amount is 0.5 basic units (currently, one basic unit is Br35 thousand). -0-

BELTA