They Drove at Over 150 km/h, the Officer Gave Them a Warning and 45 Euros Instead of 300 Each: the Interior Ministry Reported Him 20 Months Later

February 2, 2025, a stretch of road where the limit is 100 kilometres per hour. The radar clocks one vehicle at 154 km/h and another at 151 km/h. The officer who measured them alerts his colleague K. S. from the Tetovo Road Traffic Safety Police Station, who stops the vehicles and identifies the drivers. The law is clear: a misdemeanour payment order and a fine of 300 euros each, in the denar equivalent.

K. S. decided otherwise. One driver left with nothing but a written warning. The other with a fine of 45 euros. Two people who drove more than 50 km/h over the limit paid 45 euros in total instead of 600.

Now the Interior Ministry's Department for Internal Control, Criminal Investigations and Professional Standards has filed criminal charges against him with the specialised unit of the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Corruption, which handles crimes by people with police powers. The suspicion is "abuse of official position and authority" and "negligent work in service." According to the ministry, the officer gave the drivers a more favourable legal position and let them avoid an appropriate sanction.

It's good that internal control reacted. But the dates are hard to miss: the offence is from February 2025, the charges from October 2026. That's 20 months for a case recorded on radar and in an official report. If such a well-documented case took 20 months to reach the prosecutors, how many "discounts" like this went through without anyone ever reviewing them?

Why the officer spared these two drivers in particular - the statement gives no answer. And that's the question citizens will ask most. The state demands that drivers respect the limits and fines them when they don't. If the law applies to someone doing 110, it has to apply to someone doing 154 - and to the officer writing the ticket. Otherwise the radar measures speed, not justice.