Got Pulled Over
 

Today, I see a motorcycle cop approaching me from behind at 90+ miles per hour. I always pull over even if they don't have their lights on if I think they are to pull me over or on their way to an emergency. He pulls me over and tells me that he paced me at excess of 75 in a 65. He continues to write me up for no front plate, exhaust, and tint. I have no problem with the fix it tickets, as I am guilty of those. However, I specifically saw him not pace me because I saw him catching up at a much higher speed than mine and never slow down to my speed because I was already over on the shoulder. Again, me pulling over was because I thought he was going to an emergency at that rate of speed. I know some will flame me for this, and I know this is in the wrong section; but I would like to see if any of you have any advice, knowing many have had run ins with the law. I also know many here are officers, do any of you have any suggestions? (Don't mind my username, I am not part of law enforcement)

In Michigan, police speedometers must be independantly calibrated annually through LIDAR or time/distance method. If your state has this rule, and his motorcycle speedo hasn't been calibrated, you might be able to get the pace thrown out in court.

I'm a dispatcher(not a cop either) and everything can be traced via cell phone or onboard GPS these days. There should be a computer record somewhere showing everywhere he drove along with timestamps on his route.

The downside to that is if you aren't being honest you won't get out of that ticket.

It's funny, your nickname :D

You're right about this since you did actually stop because you thought it was an emergency. I guess someone will give the right advice (professional).

1st question. Were you speeding? You never said in your post that you were NOT speeding..

lol, california

Did he have his lights on or not? If he does not then don't pull over, too many people playing fake cop out there plus it makes you look guilty of something even if you are not.

As a natural reaction, I looked at my speedo and I was doing 3 over.

My guess is you might have been going faster at some point before you noticed him, and that comes from experience, not just trying to be a butt. You also have things that beg "please, please notice me Mr. Police Officer" like loud exhaust, dark tint, and no front plate. I have no professional advice how to deal with this except I treat tickets as my high speed road tax, and when I think of all the less opportune times I could have been caught, I just pay the ticket.

If you go to court, it will be between you and a CHP officer. I am beating the judge will not pick you.

what state are you in?

it's not a question of IF you were speeding. it's a question of DID the PO use a valid method to determine your vehicle speed?

I'd write everything down today on what happened in case it helps you later. Like exactly where you saw him, how far behind was he, where did you pull over. Like get a Google map and mark it down. Go take some photos. If you fight this later, they will be very important.

In terms of his technique used, you probably need to find out what can be used in your state. Personally, I think they just base it on experience and it's not very scientific but they do know when a car is speeding and hopefully error on the side of being conservative. If in fact he's pacing you, I'd think he needs to be a certain distance behind your car for it to be credible.

Dude, once i was driving in Calabasas, a couple of miles from Justin Bieber's house, and a Calabasas cop pulled me over for no front license plate on Muhulland. I told him "thank you, now go make sure The Biebs is behaving" - sometimes....:mad0260:

here's some good stuff that seems to apply to your situation....

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encycloped...hapter6-2.html