Idea for protecting the wrongfully accused – Speeding?
March 22nd, 2010 | by admin |I have had this idea a while now, after enforcing traffic in the front seat of a patrol vehicle, and by being stopped once by the California Highway Patrol.
There are many times when I sit on the side of the road, clocking vehicles making traffic stops for speeds in excess of 15+ in populated areas. This made me wonder one day.
If there are no witnesses, and the "violator" who we will call Steve, has no proof like a video camera, GPS, or something to track his speed, then a Police Officer can stop Steve even if he is doing the speed limit, and write Steve a citation for doing 90 MPH in a 65, and there is nothing Steve could do.
This made me wonder about an idea, I would like the community to comment on;
I believe that future radar/lidar guns should be installed with a memory chip or printer device of some sort, that makes it to where whenever a law enforcement officer clocks a vehicle, and decides to stop, he can print the slip out of the radar gun/save a read-only text file, with the Date – Time – Speed of Vehicle – and Officer ID/Badge# to use in court.
This would both help the Officers in valid stops that speeders contest, AND help the wrongfully accused, like Steve.
If the Officer shows up to Traffic Court without the Radar-Slip, then it is the Officer’s job to prove the vehicle was speeding, not the violator’s job to prove he wasn’t speeding.
Trust me, working our shifts with nothing to do for hours on end makes you wonder these things. Scary enough, it’s true.
I’m sure there’s been people who have actually been wrongfully convicted of speeding.
I see what you’re saying, about mobile cameras – A lot of departments don’t have car-cams, such as my department due to budget… But on second though, if departments didn’t have the budget for carcams, then they definitely wouldn’t for radar-slip guns.
True, and I both agree and disagree with the cost effective part – Mainly, it would be used to deter corrupt officers from making that decision – Then again, all they’d have to do is say they were pacing the vehicle. Then what? heh..
Many mobile video cameras have a radar interface, so the speed of both the patrol car and the suspect are displayed and recorded on the screen.
However, most departments do not purchase this unit because the administrators who make these decisions used to be in patrol, and they know it is not difficult to find a speeder. This does not make it cost effective for the very few times this happens.
I don’t doubt there are people wrongly convicted of speeding, I just don’t think the administrators will consider it worth the extra expense, especially in times of tight budgets.Make it cheap, and you may be on to something.
3 Responses to “Idea for protecting the wrongfully accused – Speeding?”
By trooper3316 on Mar 22, 2010 | Reply
Many mobile video cameras have a radar interface, so the speed of both the patrol car and the suspect are displayed and recorded on the screen.
However, most departments do not purchase this unit because the administrators who make these decisions used to be in patrol, and they know it is not difficult to find a speeder. This does not make it cost effective for the very few times this happens.
I don’t doubt there are people wrongly convicted of speeding, I just don’t think the administrators will consider it worth the extra expense, especially in times of tight budgets.Make it cheap, and you may be on to something.
References :
17 years law enforcement
By 20 Jan 09. A good day. (Erudite) on Mar 22, 2010 | Reply
Here’s one for you. I was charged with speeding ( 80 in a 50 zone) and I didn’t do it. Plus reckless driving. I was doing 50 mph and not one mile over. ( I was 21 years old) Guess what? It was the guy behind me doing the speeding. He passed me then we went around a curve and the cops caught up to me and got me. Got my car towed and did a night in jail. ( I told the cop he was wrong and got into a fight with the cop) But! On the other hand I got away with speeding many times in the past. ( From age 17 to 22 I was an idiot) Now I’m 62 years old and the Police Officer who arrested me is 84 and the Judge is 86. We have coffee all the time with each other at the restaurant. We can now laugh at the past and all of us know it would be harder for a cop to do that now.
References :
By the way. The police Officer told me he knew he was wrong about the car but he didn’t like my long hair so he arrested me for speeding. The judge said he hated my long hair so he threw the book at me. Now I have lost 50% of my hair and they are also bald. The Judge likes me now. I married his daughter 40 years ago. LOL!! Of all things I walked up to his daughter to complain what an idiot her father is and she said "Let’s go have coffee and chat". (We were at school at the time) Well, 40 years and three children later we are still chatting. For me getting arrested for a false charge was a great day for me. LOL!!! I know it won’t end up like this for all.
By John S on Mar 22, 2010 | Reply
It is ALWAYS the burden of the officer to prove somebody was speeding. His testimony that a radar gun said something is no different from his testimony that he clocked somebody at a particular speed or that he estimated a speed from his training and expertise. We trust police officers not to lie under oath. Sometimes that trust is misplaced, usually it is not, but unless your plan is to mandate that nobody can be charged with speeding at all unless there is a preserved mechanical record of a speed measurement, I think that is what we are stuck with.
References :
30+ years as a criminal defense attorney