Got a Ticket Need some advice!!!
Lazyman
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 811
Likes: 0
From: Muscle Shoals, Alabama
I'm a cop. I'm not a patrolman anymore because I moved into investigations about 3 years ago but I still know my traffic stuff. Basically, there is a lot of misunderstanding in this thread. Every state is a little different in how they handle traffic violations...for that matter every county is different from the next county in how they handle traffic violations. But I can tell you how it should and probably would go if you got ticketed for 90 in a 75.
When or if you decide to argue your case before a judge remember that you say you were doing 85. This isn't a murder trial so the judge is going to go with common sense. 76 would be over the speed limit in this case so, you were speeding. GUILTY!.
Rolling radar is just as accurate as a stationary radar. So there is no need to even address this. But the guy that made the comment about if you are in a pack of cars how can he tell who is speeding? Well, if everyone in the pack is doing 90 in a 75 then everyone is speeding and everyone is guilty but the cop is probably going to go with whatever car looks the fastest because it's an easy argument for the cop in court....just to be honest. And remember, 75% of the patrol cars in this country have video, so don't be shocked when you are in court and saying you were not speeding and the judge gets to watch a tape of a red/blue/black/yellow/white/silver FD flying through a pack of tan minivans.
As far as the argument over the airplane/helicopter patrol. In this country a police officer can use another police officer as his "Probable Cause" for writing tickets, making arrest, obtaining arrest and/or search warrants. In other words, if I'm inside a club and an officer outside the club radios for assitance and I go outside and he has broken up a fight and one of the offenders has got in his car and drove off and that officer tells me to go stop that guy and arrest him for "Disorderly Conduct" (<--that's what it would be in Alabama) then I can go and do that even though I did not see the fight. If a citizen calls in that someone is speeding then an officer would have to observe that violation for himself before intiating a traffic stop. But like I said, this is not so if another officer sees someone speeding. Say he can't catch up to the vehicle and radios ahead for another unit to stop the vehicle...this is perfectly legal. Congress and the State Governments have declared that a Policer Officer is a reliable source for other Police Officers.
I could go on and on but I'll end it with this. I'm a cool guy and yes I speed quite frequently. It's a game of cat-and-mouse. If I get caught by a Alabama State Trooper speeding the chances are, even though I'm a cop, he'll write me a ticket because that's what he does...writes tickets and works wrecks, as is the case with 99% of all Highway Patrolman and/or State Troopers. The courts lean more towards favor with the officer from the time he radars you to the time he turns the ticket in at the station. Look, you were speeding and got caught. Your thread here is an admission of guilt itself, you were doing 85 in a 75. I would ask for traffic school and let that be that.
One more thing, Guys please remember that driving in this country is NOT A RIGHT, it is a PRIVILEGE! Things like trafficassisin.com do not help things, they hurt. When people know they were speeding and try to fight it just makes local government crackdown harder on traffic laws and that eventually reaches Congress. You don't believe me? Right now the Canadian Government is working on a GPS system that interacts with a vehicles ECU to set a speed limit for the car based on the speed limit of every road it travels down. Sounds like a long shot?
Read: http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/12/01/canada_gps_speed/
I hope this helps a little.
Oh and, I was in this Forum (West RX-7) because I was using the search function for something else and ran across this thread. I'll get back to the SE RX-7 Forum now
When or if you decide to argue your case before a judge remember that you say you were doing 85. This isn't a murder trial so the judge is going to go with common sense. 76 would be over the speed limit in this case so, you were speeding. GUILTY!.
Rolling radar is just as accurate as a stationary radar. So there is no need to even address this. But the guy that made the comment about if you are in a pack of cars how can he tell who is speeding? Well, if everyone in the pack is doing 90 in a 75 then everyone is speeding and everyone is guilty but the cop is probably going to go with whatever car looks the fastest because it's an easy argument for the cop in court....just to be honest. And remember, 75% of the patrol cars in this country have video, so don't be shocked when you are in court and saying you were not speeding and the judge gets to watch a tape of a red/blue/black/yellow/white/silver FD flying through a pack of tan minivans.
As far as the argument over the airplane/helicopter patrol. In this country a police officer can use another police officer as his "Probable Cause" for writing tickets, making arrest, obtaining arrest and/or search warrants. In other words, if I'm inside a club and an officer outside the club radios for assitance and I go outside and he has broken up a fight and one of the offenders has got in his car and drove off and that officer tells me to go stop that guy and arrest him for "Disorderly Conduct" (<--that's what it would be in Alabama) then I can go and do that even though I did not see the fight. If a citizen calls in that someone is speeding then an officer would have to observe that violation for himself before intiating a traffic stop. But like I said, this is not so if another officer sees someone speeding. Say he can't catch up to the vehicle and radios ahead for another unit to stop the vehicle...this is perfectly legal. Congress and the State Governments have declared that a Policer Officer is a reliable source for other Police Officers.
I could go on and on but I'll end it with this. I'm a cool guy and yes I speed quite frequently. It's a game of cat-and-mouse. If I get caught by a Alabama State Trooper speeding the chances are, even though I'm a cop, he'll write me a ticket because that's what he does...writes tickets and works wrecks, as is the case with 99% of all Highway Patrolman and/or State Troopers. The courts lean more towards favor with the officer from the time he radars you to the time he turns the ticket in at the station. Look, you were speeding and got caught. Your thread here is an admission of guilt itself, you were doing 85 in a 75. I would ask for traffic school and let that be that.
One more thing, Guys please remember that driving in this country is NOT A RIGHT, it is a PRIVILEGE! Things like trafficassisin.com do not help things, they hurt. When people know they were speeding and try to fight it just makes local government crackdown harder on traffic laws and that eventually reaches Congress. You don't believe me? Right now the Canadian Government is working on a GPS system that interacts with a vehicles ECU to set a speed limit for the car based on the speed limit of every road it travels down. Sounds like a long shot?
Read: http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/12/01/canada_gps_speed/
I hope this helps a little.
Oh and, I was in this Forum (West RX-7) because I was using the search function for something else and ran across this thread. I'll get back to the SE RX-7 Forum now
Last edited by hus; Apr 30, 2006 at 12:33 AM.
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