I've been sitting in traffic moving along at 5 over, passed on passed on both sides (one o fthe cars was a crown vic with a senior couple, hey its FL), all the while being followed by an unmarked car, after I get passed lights go on, wrote me a ticket, added 8 MPH to my speed, lied about the limit, and labeled it pacing so it was impossible to fight. I've been singled out for my out of state plates too (traveling in a pack of MINIs at 5 under) I get written up for avoiding an accident, unfortuneately I can't give details of that because my court date is pending.

The MINI stands out and draws attention to itself in stock form, its going to be targeted, I'm respectful far beyond the levels the pfficers give me. I simply stop providing that jurisdiction with any revenue from my business, need gas next town, I can wait 10 min before stopping at a resturant. I know it seems childish but I avoid the towns that target MINIs, their LEOs made it clear they don't want me around for being a law obiding good citizen.

 

Wow what an *** of a cop.

If they are allowed in your state I reccomend getting a concealed weapon permit.

Why you ask? 3 speeding tickets, and one running a red light that I did not get is why. the thing has paid for itself already. In addition "Officer I have a concealed weapon permit and I am armed" are the first things I say. Remember, this is that guys job, and with that comment I just told him I am not going to widow his wife and orpahan his children, I have no felonies, drug charges, or violence charges and I am complying with the state law.

Now 37 in a 30 I would so have to resist laughing at the cop as wow that is just ST00PID.

Well it WAS a warning so I guess that's not too bad, I keep dodging all the cops that try to find all my short cuts and windy roads, and so far I have been lucky.

 

Xanthus, I totally missed your logic on how getting a CCW would avoid getting traffic tickets, deservedly or otherwise.

 

I got a ticket for driving a shade over 35 (definitely less than 40) in a 35 mph zone. It was a cop on a bike who was supposedly training two other cops on bikes on the correct way to zap and write a ticket. When he pulled me over, he said that he had zapped me at 42; goes back to his bike with my license and registration, spends 20 minutes talking to his buddies and comes back with a ticket for 50 in a 35 zone (!!!) and says if you have any questions, I'll see you in court.

So, I go to court, and the cop lies under oath! Tells the judge that he clocked me at 50 and I was probably going over 50. Tells the judge that he was standing with his trainees at a location where he for sure, wasn't (if he was standing where he said he was, I would have been heading right towards him - head on - with a grey wall behind him on a pretty empty stretch of road - how can I not have seen three cops with three bikes right in front of me aiming a radar gun at me?).

The judge said that unless I could PROVE that I wasn't doing 50, I was guilty. Was totally caught off guard by the cop lying under oath. Had to pay up. My first experience with a corrupt cop... so unfortunate.

-MediocreFred.

 

Fred, it's unfortunate, but if it comes down to your word against the cop's, he usually wins. One thing you can do is to file a formal complaint against him to the PD, if what he did to you is his routine, then enough people are going to file complaints and sooner or later his supervisor(s) will take notice.

 

I must have missed something in your earlier narative. How did the constable know what speed you were going if they weren't using radar?

 

It does happen (corrupt cops). I had a similar experience (was written for rolling a stop sign; pled no contest due to the burden of proof issue). Then 2 years after my experience, the cop gets caught in a sting (it seems he had numerous complaints for similar actions as I experienced) and is fired. I had a real long think about filing a claim for the false citation because after factoring in the insurance rate increase that I had to pay for the 3 years after the no contest plea, I was out 5 large. I let it go, figuring the cop was getting his pay-back (he certainly can't work in real law enforcement anymore with a perjury rap).

Net, net, you might want to file a complaint with the internal affairs division. If enough people file complaints, there may be some justice.

 

The only other way to question a bad report in court is to bring pictures and drawings of the location after doing your homework. All comes down to the judge's trust of your info verse the LEO's info. The only chance you have is to document all the particulars and produce photos, drawings and detailed explanation of the event if the info is incorrect. Otherwise you have to get a lawyer and let him fight for you.

 

But how do you get over the burden of proof issue? You have to PROVE the error; otherwise, you lose (and then in California, you are out the cost of the trial).

 

I was pulled over about a month ago. 50 in a 45. The officer said that he saw me doing the same before (at 3:50 am none the less, Nothing out there but bugs. night critters, and an occasional semi) but couldn't get turned around. His radio went off just as he came up and he had to let me go with a verbal warning, he got a call, something more serious. It has been cruse control to work and home very night since. MIB's Astro Black did a good job of hiding us at night, but the Xenons gave us away!

It hurts to hold a MC back let alone if I had a MCS!

 

Guess what, I did all of that. I had a detailed satellite image of the area (thanks to Google Earth) with various details like stoplights, parking lot entrances and traffic flow photoshopped in. I also had a detailed documentation of the encounter. Complete with which lights were red, cars that turned in front of me, etc. and a detailed transcription of my conversation with the cop. The transcription of the conversation and other relevant facts were all documented within three hours of getting the ticket - I had absolutely no doubt that I was right and he was way off.

In short, it was a road with a fairly steep incline, with three lights, a commuter train station along the street, three pedestrian crossings, two cross streets and entrances to 6 parking lots in a 600 feet stretch of road. This road is part of my daily commute and it is just impossible for me to start from standstill and reach 50 mph in this stretch of road with the pedestrians and traffic turning in and out of the parking lots and cross streets. In the court, the cop claimed that he was further along the road where there are no pedestrians, no traffic (it turns into an on-ramp to the freeway) - if he was really there, I would've had to be blind to not have seen three cops on three bikes.

I did think of filing a complaint, but, like some of you said, it is a case of my word against his.

To add insult to injury, this was right outside the BMW/MINI dealership!

-MediocreFred.

 

I feel your pain, I got bagged in the middle of a pack on our main E-W highway (which incidentally just got rated as the road in Mass w/ the highest # of tickets); I'm convinced my DRLs gave him a good target for his laser. As Ivan (snek) would tell you, fight it, you've got nothing to lose and all to gain.

As others have mentioned, it could be that folks on that quiet shortcut have complained to the local mounties and their tolerance is lower. In my last job I used to cut through a town (Lincoln) that hates us commuters that cut through town (a few years back the townies tried to get everyone else to drive precisely the speed limit, but the local mounties made 'em stop because they were making traffic unbearable for everyone). I've heard of tickets for going 31 in a 30, just to prove a point.

I was zipping along last year and hit the town line, my V1 goes crazy and I hit the brakes right to the speed limit. Come around the corner and there's the mountie. Pulls out in a hurry after me, follows me for a coupla miles and then pulls me over. You could see her look of disgust when she saw my V1 on the windshield. Turns out my reg sticker was missing, but all my paperwork was fine so she let me go. But, she was definately making her "point".

Of course, you could be like this woman...imagine getting 83% of your points in one stop!

Police clock teacher at over 100 mph

April 13, 2006
FARGO, N.D. --A teacher on her way to school in South Dakota was caught speeding at more than 100 mph, thanks to a tip from a driver who said the woman had been routinely passing him at triple-digit speeds, authorities say.
Heather Jo Smith, 25, of Fargo, was clocked at 102 mph on Wednesday near the Horace exit on Interstate 29, Cass County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Argall said.
Smith was driving a car that is owned by the Northeast Educational Co-op in Hayti, S.D., Argall said.
Smith did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Thursday that was left at her office. A message left at a Fargo listing for Heather Jo Smith was not immediately returned.
"We got a tip from a gentleman who said he had been passed by a small, dark car with South Dakota plates at least five times in the last month going more than 100," Argall said.
The man called authorities on Tuesday to report the driver. The next day, a deputy was posted along the highway near Horace, where the man said he had been passed by the speeding vehicle, each time at around 8 a.m.
"As luck would have it, there was a small, dark car with South Dakota plates heading south at more than 100," Argall said.
Smith was pulled over shortly before 8 a.m.
Tips about speeders rarely result in a ticket because the driver is long gone before a deputy can respond, Argall said. "This was a good one," he said.
Smith was issued a ticket for $135 and assessed 10 of the 12 points on her North Dakota driver's license, Argall said.
Smith's employer also was contacted. Smith works as a speech pathologist at the school, Argall said.
"We talked to her supervisor and he was appreciative," Argall said. "Hopefully, they will take interest in her driving because we sure did."

 

Here in Georgia, only a state trooper can rip you off for less than 11 over. In theory, a GSP can do it for 1 over, but not city or county revenue agents. The area I live in is notorious for hyperagressive speed traps, so it helps to know the nuances of the laws.

I worked in the motor pool at the college I attended (on-campus job) and I got to play with a radar unit for a couple of hours. An educational experience to say the least... I clocked a Snap-On toolbox at 96 mph, a bicyclist at 43, and a guy jogging at 28. I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that the toolbox was sitting still! All of these were ticketable (and horrendous) transgressions. Lucky for that toolbox that I was an engineering student, not a cop. (Hopefully hizzoner would dismiss a case against a toolbox, but who knows?)

I carry a Windows CE PDA with a voice recorder...if a cop accused me of 42 mph verbally and wrote me for 50, my lawyer's would make sure that it'd be a money losing scenario for him.

I don't advocate driving dangerously, but I've seen plenty enough abuses of the system to know that everyone who wears a badge isn't your friend


Rawhyde

 

Remember, not all cops like the ticketing gig - cops that like to give tickets are usually given that very assignment - they're good at it, too. Municipalities are looking for revenue, so it will only get worse.

I've beaten a moving violation in court, not because it was unjust, (which it was), but only because they switched courtrooms for traffic violations without warning. The local cops all know the judges, they're familiar with testifying, they know how to answer a question convincingly, and especially, what not to say. Fer crissakes, don't mention your cousin is an "important councilman" for leverage - that's like a red flag! The judges tend to be fairly critical of amateur shysters, so even if you've got all your ducks in a row, it's a cr*pshoot. The judge in my case had passed thru Wickenburg, Arizona - a notorious speedtrap - just the weekend before, and been popped himself. Every speeding ticket holder that day was dead meat, but everyone else who had a rolling stop, a bad signal, a failure to yield got off - (whee! I wasn't there for speeding!) mostly because this judge wasn't the usual traffic court rollover. At one point, I overheard a CHP muttering to his buddy "Nobody ever asks us that!" when the judge was digging a little deeper than usual into an officer's story. The cop in my case had serious case of the I-didn't-notice-thats, and the judge felt his judgment call wasn't justified, as he didn't seem to notice anything! Thank goodness that judge looked at both sides of a I-said,he-said situation. Very unusual, tho.

BCNU,
Rob in Dago

 

You say you obey the laws yet you were doing 37 in a 30. Hmmm. I would guess your laws are a bit elastic. So when you say you stop at stop signs completely that would, in your world, mean you come as close to a complete stop as you feel is necessary to be judged as a complete stop. The same of course would hold true for all of the ways you obey the law. Just to the extent that "you" deem them to obeyed. You didn't get stopped because you were driving a mini. You got stopped because someone invaded that law abiding world you created and did a "*******" dance right on your preception of what is legal and what isn't. You can't "almost" do the speed limit bubba. *sheesh*

 

Hey lets all be honest. They usually let you pass if your are under 10 mph over the limit....but they don't have to. The law says the posted limit and they are there to enforce the law. I may not agree with it but it is the law.

Damm law.

 

without having to pay and you're whining. Since you do speed and you say you don't it makes one wonder if you lied about all the other so called "law abiding" things you do. I'd venture to refute your non-scofflaw title. Sounds to me like you break most laws to some extent, but since you decide what constitutes what's legal and what's not it really has nothing to do with what society says is legal vs. illegal, but what you say. Sounds like a massive ego at work to me. And it's not because you drive a mini. That's just another excuse. It's because you were speeding. Not your definition of speeding, but the real one. ;-)

 

I'm on vacation, but I just had to quickly respond to you. Maybe you missed your anger management class because such aggression and bitterness towards somebody you don't know is really frightening as it is completely unwarranted. First amendment and more power to you, though.

So, I suppose if I glued my eyes to the speedometer 100% of the time, I could prevent such occurrences, but that might be a tad dangerous, though. I do my very best to stay within the posted speed limits and my driving record speaks for itself.

 

Dude ... you probably got a lot of negative reaction in here but to me it just sounds like a bit of venting ... or ranting ...

You wrote That’s right: 37 in a 30. Now, I would see if I was going like 45 or 50 in a 30, but 37? Geez Louise!

That is a bit of venting. Complaining that you got caught.
Everybody needs to vent sometime. Just suck it up, learn from it, and move on. As they say "sh....t happens"

 

So, for all you folks that said I wasn’t pulled over for driving a MINI Cooper, well, you were wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. After I told one of my best friends about my run-in with the law (who lives one block from me), she informed me that while I was on vacation, some pervert approached some children in my neighborhood. This is from the police report (from the Arlington Advocate):

“He was reportedly driving a yellow Mini Cooper or a similar vehicle. Police are investigating ...”

Obviously, pulling me over was a part of their investigation. I’m always glad to help out in any way I can.

 

I'm glad they actually knew it was a MINI, every LEO I talk to thinks I drive a BMW cooper, I smile and move on. I have a friend that drives a Civic, gets stopped all tihe time for that kind of thing, they were nice enough to say "I pulled you over because a car fittting your description..." and that was the only reason they had too.

 

so dude, thats a good thing... The PBA card I have got me out of a 62 in a 35 with a verbal warning....having a lil too much fun with my mini in 4th!!!

PBA Cards and Radar Detectors have saved me a couple times...

 

It would appear that there was a data point that not even MisterDangerPants was aware of (the pending investigation). I guess my question is why there was no communication of the reason for the pull over after the ID and record was checked. It certainly might have avoided this thread....

 

Ahh the joys of jumping to conclusions without all the facts....

There are lots of reasons why the officer didn't disclose the pending investigation, not the least of which might be because at the time the PD didn't want the fact that such an investigation was going on to be disclosed for fear of alerting a suspect...

I'm not sure I see the point of that statement. Are you saying that the local PD should be concerned that there's a thread on an internet site about a traffic stop one of their officers made?

 

It was more oriented to jumping to conclusions without having all of the facts. While the officer may not have wanted to disclose an on-going investigation, I am sure that a phone call from my attorney to the D.A. (if I were the one who was pulled over) would find out whether I was the target of an investigation. Once I knew that I was not the target of an investigation, I would not have given the stop a second thought. There was no citation; therefore, no harm, no foul.