Paraíba is an elongated state between the coast and the sertão: João Pessoa and its metropolitan region with Cabedelo and the port, Campina Grande with its technology pole and the country’s largest São João festival, BR-101 running the coast between Natal and Recife and BR-230 climbing from Cabedelo to Campina Grande, Patos and Cajazeiras. Infractions are applied by DETRAN-PB in the registry, by João Pessoa’s Semob and the municipal bodies in the cities, by the military police on state roads and by the Federal Highway Police on federal ones.

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.

DETRAN-PB records each infraction against the plate and the RENAVAM, notifies the owner and receives the prior defence and the appeals; Semob enforces João Pessoa with cameras and agents, and Campina Grande and Patos have their own municipal bodies. DER-PB enforces the state roads and the Federal Highway Police BR-101 and BR-230; with an overdue fine the annual licensing is not issued.

What the API returns for this jurisdiction

In Paraíba 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 Paraíba

To check a plate by hand, the DETRAN-PB 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 Paraíba

A distribution fleet climbing from João Pessoa to Campina Grande and the sertão on BR-230 piles up PRF camera infractions and those of the municipal bodies on trucks without a fixed driver; with the monthly plate lookup and the result filed per body, the company names the driver within the citation period.

For a company licensing its whole fleet in the same month, the plate lookup before the procedure finds the Semob and BR-101 infractions that would block it.

How to integrate

A lookup is a POST with the identifier and, optionally, the jurisdictions to include; the initial response accepts the job and the result arrives by status lookup or webhook, because official sources answer in seconds or minutes. The asynchronous APIs guide explains how to retry without duplicating lookups, and the API page describes the full contract.

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

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