First speeding ticket in camaro

[cmb74656]

Originally Posted by The SwiftChancelor

I don't get bothered by the police. I figure they really target older vehicles around were I live. I mean you can't really be a crackhead and have one of these cars, or can you?

Not without jacking it up on 28s.

[SILVERHAWK]

Originally Posted by Stealth6

So, let's say you're "speeding" outside Delaware and get pulled over.... do you show your badge and ID and "walk/professional courtesy''??? I'm sure you didn't get your SS to drive at or below the speed limit... But in case you did... that would be really remarkable.

I will let you know if and when I ever get pulled over at least in the camaro... lol ...proves that these cars are not cop magnets like everyone thinks.....
I got pulled over once out of state in the 10 yrs I have been on the job...it was 1 am on Long Island... told the officer that I was just so happy to be entering a road with no one else on it while on this "God forsaken Island", I couldn't help myself. (I'm sure anyone one here from Long Island will attest to how bad traffic is out there) The officer chuckled, handed me back my license/reg and told me to have a safe trip. He was two cars behind me on the entrance ramp and when I slowed down after getting scolded by the wife it was too late he was behind me lighting me up.

I won't lay claim to being an angel....but I drive at a speed under what I enforce. The OP's ticket in this case is a "little weak" according to my standards, and at least a few of the magistrates here don't want to see anything less than 10 over....thats why in general I am a 20 over guy unless its in a 25 zone (then its 15) ..at least when issuing tickets.

If I do have contact with someone from another agency, by policy I am supposed to identify myself if for nothing else because I have a certain tool of my trade on my person at all times.
Does professional courtesy happen? Yes Have I given professional courtesy? Yes Do I demand it? No
and there are agencies/states around here that don't give it out.....so be it. There are plenty of other professions that have perks too... its a part of life. Guess it would be different if every time an officer pulled someone over for a violation they had to issue the violator a ticket, but since we have discretion, I give out plenty of warnings, so yeah some happen to be other cops.

I can guarantee that getting caught for as fast as these cars will go....will result in no professional courtesy....losing my job, my license, and ending up on the front page of the local paper doesn't interest me.

[toesuf94]

I was ticket free for the first 16 years of my driving life. Then BANG - two in two months. Both for 75+ in a 55 mph zone. Both times the LEOS were very cool and only wrote me for 10 over. The second one was the funnier of the two: I had cut my middle finger OFF the day before, and it had been reattached successfully and I had just left the doc's office with a fresh bandage the size of a Coke bottle on my middle finger. I was driving dad's BMW 740 and I got into it hard...very hard. Was at 110 then coasted it off all the way up the interstate - crossed the radar beams at 78 in a 55. OOPS. Cop was standing in the road flagging me down. Pulled over, was polite...he asked me about the bandage and I asked "what? THIS!" And gave him the finger - right up to his nose - I honestly did not mean to flip him off, just kind of showed him my hand. He laughed and asked if I meant to do that and how he should take that...I said that he could take it any way he wanted if he was giving me the ticket. He laughed again...then wrote me for 9 over. Nice guy. I did not deserve the lower number on that ticket at all.

[Matic]

Originally Posted by yzrider58

Hightower you got a ticket for going 7 over and said all the "right" things during the stop. Some cops have a power trip and 7 over isn't worth a ticket. Nothing you could have done and you got the shaft. Everyone slamming him should read the thread of what he said during the stop. Once again, he got shafted for being young.

Anyone on here would complain about getting a ticket for only going 7 over.

77-50= 7? :(

[Hendu]

Originally Posted by mlee

WoW... aren't we Mr perfect... no radar detector needed for you sir..

I'll keep mine for those times when I'm not paying attention and go 5 or 6 over... no sense wasting the officers time on me..

Just saying - a radar detector won't get you out of tickets, being careful with your speed will.

A radar detector makes you just as safe as a condom does, sometimes you won't know it fails until it's too late.

[dholz47]

So far have my '10 SS/RS Red for 5 months and haven't been pulled over once. A long time ago, had a red Civic and got pulled over 6 times in a year....... really! No change in driving and back in a red car. Fingers crossed!

[JohnnyComeLately]

Originally Posted by SILVERHAWK

If I do have contact with someone from another agency, by policy I am supposed to identify myself if for nothing else because I have a certain tool of my trade on my person at all times.
Does professional courtesy happen? Yes Have I given professional courtesy? Yes Do I demand it? No
and there are agencies/states around here that don't give it out.....so be it. There are plenty of other professions that have perks too... its a part of life. Guess it would be different if every time an officer pulled someone over for a violation they had to issue the violator a ticket, but since we have discretion, I give out plenty of warnings, so yeah some happen to be other cops.

I can guarantee that getting caught for as fast as these cars will go....will result in no professional courtesy....losing my job, my license, and ending up on the front page of the local paper doesn't interest me.

A friend of my wife's dad was a Tulsa Police Dept seargant. He was telling me how the highway patrol in Kansas would write them up for 1 over (56 in a 55 back then, as we were still at the 55 nation wide limit). They especially disliked how they treated them. I won't exactly quote it right but he said, "The Kansas HP said, 'why do you come up into my area and speed? I don't come down and rob your banks.' I replied, 'Speeding is hardly an armed felony.' " I had to laugh when he told me this story, as I already disliked them a great deal. OHP could be jerks but they were fair.

[SILVERHAWK]

Originally Posted by JohnnyComeLately

A friend of my wife's dad was a Tulsa Police Dept seargant. He was telling me how the highway patrol in Kansas would write them up for 1 over (56 in a 55 back then, as we were still at the 55 nation wide limit). They especially disliked how they treated them. I won't exactly quote it right but he said, "The Kansas HP said, 'why do you come up into my area and speed? I don't come down and rob your banks.' I replied, 'Speeding is hardly an armed felony.' " I had to laugh when he told me this story, as I already disliked them a great deal. OHP could be jerks but they were fair.

Yeah, that would get thrown right the hell out of court here and it would be all out WAR!!... I would bet the Attorney General's office would also send a memo to the dept about citing that low.
If I am not mistaken it can be argued that nothing under 5 over should be written due to margin of error between speedometers that are +/- 3 mph and the radar units that are +/- 2 mph..(LIDAR is +/- 1 mph). I can sneeze and do 5 over by accident. 1 over is absolutely retarded and honestly I would laugh in their face for writing me that ticket.

[JohnnyComeLately]

Originally Posted by SILVERHAWK

Yeah, that would get thrown right the hell out of court here and it would be all out WAR!!... I would bet the Attorney General's office would also send a memo to the dept about citing that low.
If I am not mistaken it can be argued that nothing under 5 over should be written due to margin of error between speedometers that are +/- 3 mph and the radar units that are +/- 2 mph..(LIDAR is +/- 1 mph). I can sneeze and do 5 over by accident. 1 over is absolutely retarded and honestly I would laugh in their face for writing me that ticket.

You can likely get it thrown, but that entails another drive up from Oklahoma to Kansas to appear.

I haven't lived in the Mid-West since around '98 (left the Air Force in '98, and left home, Tulsa, for the AF in '90), but it is, or was, very common in the South and Mid-West to get pulled over for 1-5 mph over. You can claim the error on the speedo, but when the officer produces the certification that the radar mechanism is NOT in error, it doesn't do much for you. "Ignorance doesn't excuse" type of response follows. However, unlike here in San Diego, they would be extremely likely to drop it to a non-moving violation. I have a few "bad equipment" tickets from my teenage years. Again, though, this entails a trip to the court, which is typically when you are wanting to be at work to earn wages, and no one likes to burn a vacation day for court.

[SILVERHAWK]

Originally Posted by JohnnyComeLately

You can likely get it thrown, but that entails another drive up from Oklahoma to Kansas to appear.

I haven't lived in the Mid-West since around '98 (left the Air Force in '98, and left home, Tulsa, for the AF in '90), but it is, or was, very common in the South and Mid-West to get pulled over for 1-5 mph over. You can claim the error on the speedo, but when the officer produces the certification that the radar mechanism is NOT in error, it doesn't do much for you. "Ignorance doesn't excuse" type of response follows. However, unlike here in San Diego, they would be extremely likely to drop it to a non-moving violation. I have a few "bad equipment" tickets from my teenage years. Again, though, this entails a trip to the court, which is typically when you are wanting to be at work to earn wages, and no one likes to burn a vacation day for court.

totally understand what you are saying especially about losing time off from work to go to court. Here going to court at least for the initial appearance at a magistrate is a little more forgiving. The one in my county is open 24/7 and usually if you call first, they will let you appear at a time earlier then you are supposed to unless its a trial date. Plus my State is a hell of alot smaller especially at high tide.... lol.
The one point I really wanted to hit on is about the certification of the radar unit.....if you examine the document there will be a margin of error on it that has been held up by case law as acceptable to be certified ("nothing is perfect")...on the older K55 radar it was +/- 2 mph on my LIDAR certs it is +/- 1. I'm sure somewhere on google there is documentation on the margin of error for speedometers... of course with these newer cars or at least with my CVC if it senses that the speedometer is off by more than 2 mph it will set off the CEL. I know it seems to be a pain to do, but I would argue that its a valid point (reasonable doubt) for that low over the limit. NOW if you are doing a 100 then obviously not lol. There's no way I could ever possibly expect someone to hold their speed exactly on the speed limit no matter what it is especially those of us who don't own a vehicle with a digital speedometer, thats why I think citing someone for that low over the limit is just ridiculous. Hell, around here if I pulled for 10 over I could pull over half the highway at a time....on multi lane roads here in the City they pass me in my police car at 10 over and don't think anything of it, at least until I turn on my lights ha ha.

[JohnnyComeLately]

Unfortunately, in Vista courthouse, a county in Northern San Diego, the judge ignores law, precedence, as well as even CHP bulletins. CHP bulletins are unique in California versus other states' HP, as although they're not legislation or law by definition, legislators and judges have referred to them as a cited reference for a ruling. The specific example would be helmet laws back a decade or two ago. Originally a ticket for "no helmet" while riding a 2 wheeled vehicle was allowed to be a "fix it" ticket. Funny but true. CHP put out something along the lines it was not a fix it ticket and courts followed.

I know a few people won't believe this story, but there's a 2-3 officers in Vista court that will vouch I crossed my officer for a solid 3+ hours in court for my last ticket. The judge had to recess twice for breaks and to get a few other cases completed, but I had the officer admit to:
- Never read the manual for the radar unit
- Was not familiar with the limitations or intended use as stated by the manufacturer
- His total training consisted of a fellow officer reading PPT slides to him
- Could not name a single warning or manufacturer stated caution
- Didn't know how to differentiate the vehicle being lasered from a vehicle in an adjacent lane
- Modification of the gun from manufacture (when I walked from the parking lot to the courthouse, I noticed his gun, unlike any other motorcops, had a healthy amount of duct tape).\
- and a litany of other things.

As I think I mentioned in this thread, I'd already spent hours in court just listening. I knew I'd be found guilty even if Jesus appeared and vouched the officer made a mistake. However, I made them work a bit harder for my $350 for the ticket, since it pissed me off I knew it was due to officer error. I was in the fast lane coming over a ridge everyone in Oceanside knows is a speed trap (Westbound state highway 76, just east of the airport.. just before the limit goes from 55 to 65). Car in the #1 lane behind behind me, changes to the #2 lane, passes and comes over the ridge before me. Officer is on the right side, and closer to #2, and about 300-400 yards up the road. I brought up points like, "at that distance, do you know the width of the beam? How precise you have to aim due to closing angles?".. etc etc.. Hell, he didn't even know if his gun was a single or triple pulse laser, or that a laser can get a first reflection from a windshield and second from front plate (throwing off the speed calculation).

Long story short, I did Google the manual and even prepared three pages of technical questions to show the officer likely made a mistake, and admitted as much in court. The cert they showed, from what I recall, did show a margin and that's why they round down 1-2 mph from what's indicated to what's cited. Didn't matter, guilty... On a related note, the officers state some things that sound very legalise, boilerplate, when it comes to the tesimony regarding the certification of their laser gun. That's probably the most nailed down part of the officers' testimony in Vista county (at least).

Funny thing is I haven't seen them do a speed trap near my house in quite some time...

[jmaynard]

Originally Posted by alaskacamaro

Just to give some LEO advice here, radar units will only give you a warning that we have pinged you and already have you locked. 1/3 of my stops are with people that have a radar units and they get upset because they think its going to give some kind of "cop ahead" warning. Best advice is to save your money and just keep an eye on your speed, advice I need to heed myself in my new beast.

Oh come on. You know those scare tactics have been debunked. A radar detector, any one worth it's weight, will notify the driver well ahead of time of a radar signal long before it 'locks' onto the car. Unless you have somehow developed a radar that sends out a straight beam signal (laser) and have the ability to control the drop of the signal (not possible) at a specified distance your radar will be picked up long before you can see the vehicle approaching. NOrmally what I get is a hit or two from your radar beam hitting some sort of hard object along side the road. This can be signs, bridges, I love bridges, semi's, etc. Unless you are on a long, straight road lined with shrubs (they disperse radar signals) and there are no other cars on the road your raqdar wont beat my detector.

Now, laser is another story. LOoking to install the device to take care of that.

So, I will pose this question and perhaps others in law enforcement can chime in. What are you really trying to do out there on the road, catch speeders or make the roads safer? I would hope the later. Sometimes an extra 10 over is not an unsafe speed. Sometimes 5 under is 'speeding'. Most officers I know understand this.