The Federal District is Brasília and its administrative regions: the Plano Piloto with the Eixão and the monumental axes, Taguatinga, Ceilândia and the satellite cities joined by wide, fast roads, and BR-040, BR-060 and BR-020 leaving towards Goiás and Minas. DETRAN-DF is both the registry body and the enforcer of the roads, with cameras on the axes and at the entrances of the cities; the Federal Highway Police acts on federal highways. An overdue fine blocks the annual licensing.

Context and authorities

The framework is the Brazilian Traffic Code, which classifies infractions as minor, medium, serious and very serious with fixed-value fines and points on the driver’s licence; the state DETRAN, the municipal traffic bodies and the Federal Highway Police on federal highways apply them, and SENATRAN integrates the national registries. An unpaid fine blocks the annual licensing and the transfer of the vehicle.

Unlike the states, DETRAN-DF directly enforces the District’s roads with fixed and mobile cameras and agents, and records infractions against the plate and the RENAVAM with the notice, the prior defence and the appeals before the JARI; DER-DF enforces the district highways joining the administrative regions. Infractions on vehicles from Goiás and the surrounding area, which enter by the tens of thousands every day, are notified to the owner’s address in their state.

What the API returns for this jurisdiction

In the Federal District a plate lookup walks the integrated sources of the Brazil fines API and returns each infraction with the body that recorded it, as the source publishes it:

  • Issuing body and infraction notice number exactly as the source publishes them.
  • Date, location and infraction code under the traffic code.
  • Value, status (citation, penalty, paid) and points when the source reports them.
  • Coverage per source and a partial-result flag when any failed to answer.

How to check a plate in the Federal District

To check a plate by hand, the DETRAN-DF portal shows the infractions and the licensing status with the plate and the RENAVAM, and the Carteira Digital de Trânsito app, coordinated by SENATRAN, concentrates the notices of every body. With ten units that is enough; with a hundred, the API walks the integrated sources by plate and returns the result split by body.

What to watch if you run a fleet in the Federal District

A service or staff transport fleet covering the axes and the satellite cities every day piles up DETRAN-DF and DER-DF camera infractions on plates rotating between drivers, with the citation notice reaching headquarters with a short period to name the driver; looking up each plate at month end, with the result stored per body, lets you do it in time.

For a company in the surrounding area with units registered in Goiás working in Brasília, the monthly plate lookup separates the District’s infractions from those of its state and prevents a forgotten one from blocking licensing back home.

How to integrate

Each vehicle is sent in a POST, with the jurisdictions to include if you do not want to query all of them. The response accepts the job and the result is retrieved by status lookup or arrives by webhook once the sources finish answering. The vehicle lookup quality guide explains how to handle a source that did not answer.

JSONIllustrative example, not a contract.
{
  "plate": "ABC1D23",
  "jurisdictions": [
    "BR-DF"
  ]
}

Limits and considerations

  • Infractions on federal highways are recorded by the Federal Highway Police and are checked in the national channels, not at the state DETRAN.
  • Values are those of the traffic code current at the time of payment, with the applicable discount or surcharge; the final amount is set by the body.
  • A source that does not answer is reported as such, never as an absence of infractions.
  • The API neither pays fines nor files defences; it delivers information to decide.

Sources and further reading