Attention: NSW Caretaker Period has commenced. The caretaker period for the NSW Election commenced on 3 March 2023.  Accordingly, no ministerial press releases or related information issued by the Government from this date will be available on this website.   For copies of recently issued ministerial press releases or information on the election policies of any political party as they relate to this department/agency or its portfolio area, please go directly to the website of the relevant political party.

Centre for Road Safety

  1. NSW Centre for Road Safety
  2. Campaigns
  3. Stop it...Or cop it

Stop it...Or cop it

In NSW, 16,500 police officers are out there. And all police officers can enforce the road rules. Watch our video or read a transcript.

Drivers, riders and all road users breaking the road rules can be caught anywhere and at any time.

There are penalties for not complying with the road rules, including demerit points, heavy fines and loss of licence. In 2016, around 620,000 fines were issued by police to motorists caught breaking the law. In the same year, NSW Police conducted almost 5 million breath tests, resulting in about 17,000 charges.

Keeping the community safe

When people ignore or disregard road safety rules, they put their lives and the lives of others at risk. Between 2012 and 2016, there were 1,739 fatalities and 61,831 serious injuries on NSW roads – that means someone is killed or injured every 41 minutes. About half of the fatal crashes involved a driver or rider engaging in at least one of the identified unsafe road user behaviours of speeding, drink driving, drug driving, seatbelt non-usage or illegal mobile phone use. Our interactive crash stats provide more details.

All road users owe it to themselves and to everyone else on the road to follow the road rules and drive to the conditions. By making safe choices, crashes can be prevented and lives can be saved.

Police partnership

The Stop it... Or cop it campaign is part of Transport for NSW’s partnership with the NSW Police Force to reduce risky behaviour and improve road safety. High visibility enforcement combined with the perceived certainty of enforcement and immediacy of a penalty is known to provide a strong deterrent to illegal road user behaviour.

In addition to the work the police do every day across the state to keep us safe on the roads, we also use the Community Road Safety Fund to conduct the Enhanced Enforcement Program. Transport for NSW funds additional campaigns including Safe Arrival, Operation Slow Down, Operation North Force and South Force and Towards Zero Operations to target emerging crash locations.

This high visibility enforcement is targeted and coordinated so that police address risks identified in particular geographic areas and respond to emerging issues, including motorcycle, bicycle rider and pedestrian safety. Enhanced enforcement operations supported with public education campaigns have a greater impact than either activity done in isolation.