Ed,
Occasionally, a "technicality" is all that is needed for a local
jurisdiction to decide they don't have a case. I was "radared" by an
officer standing on the side of the road with his radar gun; a second
officer was standing next to him. I went to the court house to get a copy
of the ticket to see the back side where notes are made that you don't see
on your original ticket; you get the whole story this way. I discovered a
second officer wrote the ticket, but only one officer's name was on the
ticket. The local jurisdiction decided they didn't have a case and dropped
it.
Frank
"Price, Ed"
<[email protected]
om> To
Sent by: [email protected]
owner-emc-pstc@LI cc
STSERV.IEEE.ORG
Subject
RE: Weaknesses in Today's Police
03/31/2005 07:39 Radar
AM
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 9:02 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Weaknesses in Today's Police Radar
Brian,
You, your friend, or an attorney may want to review previous cases that
have been successfully challenged. I know of one case where the court
found that a large tree beside a two lane country road caused the radar gun
to read inaccurately. The police car and defendant were headed towards the
tree from opposite directions.
Frank
The odds in court are generally against you. The officer has canned
testimony vetted to demonstrate that he's been trained on the radar, he
checked the system, he followed observational guidelines, he didn't stop
you for the radar indication only, etc.
Was your friend honest? When the officer likely asked "Do you know how fast
you were going?", did he answer something like "Oh certainly not 67 MPH,
more like 57 MPH at the most!" DING! Direct admission of speeding; honesty
doesn't mean anything when you voluntarily admit a violation.
In California, you often have the option to take "traffic school", a
one-day seminar that will expunge a minor violation and keep you from the
REAL penalty, a hike in your insurance for several years. One reason that
relatively few cases are contested is that traffic school is automatically
granted if you plead guilty, pay the "administrative fee" and take the
seminar. But if you choose to contest your case, the judge is not obligated
to grant traffic school should you lose. There is certainty in pleading
guilty, great uncertainty in contesting the case. Regardless of how you
feel about the merits of the case, the smart course is to pay up and go
away. The system likes it that way.
For those inclined to assert themselves, I have thought that applying
economic leverage is better than a technical challenge. As the accuracy of
the radar is the only real "evidence" against you, you might want to demand
that the radar system be impounded as evidence. Radars are little cash
machines for the system, and having one impounded for quite a while as you
prepare to have an expert lab check the system (you might want to mention
all the problems you expect, and the continuances that you'll surely need)
might just make the arrest go away for some obscure reason or other. OTOH,
this is an escalation of the incident, a stand-off of wills, and common
sense screams that you don't even think about this course.
Our judicial system is the ultimate regulatory compliance expert.
Regards (and don't ask me how I know),
Ed Price
[email protected] WB6WSN
NARTE Certified EMC Engineer & Technician
Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab
Cubic Defense Applications
San Diego, CA USA
858-505-2780 (Voice)
858-505-1583 (Fax)
Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty
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