Court: Officer's Speed Estimate Enough For Ticket

reply to post by poedxsoldiervet


In Arkansas to become radar certified you have to be able to estimate the speed before you turn on the radar. As far as I know the officer has to have you clocked in before he can initiate a traffic stop.

However, officer can pace a vehicle by following behind it and make a legal traffic stop.

I'm so sick of Ohio.

I want to move to Vermont.

Originally posted by derek_m24
reply to post by poedxsoldiervet

 

In Arkansas to become radar certified you have to be able to estimate the speed before you turn on the radar. As far as I know the officer has to have you clocked in before he can initiate a traffic stop.

However, officer can pace a vehicle by following behind it and make a legal traffic stop.

Now that I have seen before, My father inlaw is a police officer in Cincinnati, and sometimes I-71, I75, and I 275 are like speedways so they just get behind a car and pullt themover that way.

reply to post by Alpha Grey


I have sat in jail over similar things. If you want to find me guilty of a crime i am not guilty of, it is my right to protest. Sit me in jail. If you want to trump up your charges, and then stick them to me in a kangaroo court, then you can pay to feed me for a day or two while i DON"T pay the fine.

If i don't speak out in such ways, it will cause me to snap. I have to protest, even if it is in a small way.

My initial reaction to this is, "What the hell?!"

However, it made me wonder, what happened before radar guns? Surely, cops stopped speeders.

Today, we do have radar guns, and they give a number which is useful for setting a fine per mile over the limit. And speed can be estimated visually using reference points and calculating. However, unless the speed is almost reckless, something like 15-20 miles over the limit, an estimate is not very reliable. The individual perception of time and counting is not always incrementally equal or accurate. then they have to take into account angles of view of references as well as time to calculate, unless the calculations or a given reference point are determined ahead of time.

I don't think any court should accept an estimate without some explanation of how they determined the speed to be in excess. Otherwise, crooked or not, they appear as such, and give the impression they are just fishing for money.

well before too long you can just get "certified" to estimate whether someone's carrying a gun, drugs or just about anything else.

bunch of broke thugs, this is a pitiful and idiotic move. I will be surprised if it holds up past a few tickets, the federal judicial branch will become involved.

when the hell did the federal government become the more suitable "protector" of people's rights? If your own state is passing laws like this, get out!

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c
Nice heads up for while traveling through Ohio.

Here in PA only State Troopers are allowed to use radar, with township and municipal law enforcement officers being limited to electronic timings devices and whatnot.....

This ruling in Ohio seems absolute BS, imo.

It's one thing if the officer is travelling near the speed limit and you blow right by them, or if they're trailing a vehicle and can estimate speed based upon the time it takes them to pass a given predetermined point between the two (the one second per car length rule) ... otherwise, it leaves things Way too open to individual perspective, supposition and assumption.
.

If the court said they can use timing devices instead of radar there's no problem with that. That's what they used before radar and using telephone poles or street signs as reference points it's as accurate as the officer's ability to start and stop the timer when the car passes the poles. Probably good to +/- 5mph anyway and they usually don't write a ticket for 5mph over.

But guesstimating without telephone poles or street signs and timers? They can't be that accurate, it's totally bogus.

I didn't realize only the Troopers in PA could write speeding tickets. I tried to fight a speeding ticket in PA and it was so funny. The "court" was an old abandoned elementary or middle school with tiny little student desks in the classroom that was the court. The Judge's bench was a desk that was elevated on a platform several feet high so her head almost touched the ceiling when she was sitting down. Between the elevation of the Judges bench and the tiny little pupil desk they had me sitting in, I almost got neckstrain trying to look up at the judge. But it was the biggest parody of a courtroom I've ever seen, I still laugh thinking about it. But maybe PA can make ends meet in their budget if that's how they spend money! (or should I say, DON'T spend money)