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CVO Social => In The News => Topic started by: Chains on June 18, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
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An Ohio Supreme Court has decided that if an officer is well trained enough in the estimation of a driver's speed, they can write you a ticket for speeding. According to MSNBC, the court ruled in favor 5-1.
The court issued a statement saying, "a police officer's unaided visual estimation of a vehicle's speed is sufficient." Is this fair?
The ruling came after a case where an officer stopped a driver who was allegedly going 81 miles per hour in a 60 mile per hour zone. The judge of the case dismissed the police officer's case because he did not have a radar certification.
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That's great...now we can get pulled because a cop thinks that it looks like you are speeding.
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Not a good thing to start letting patrolmen be the judge and jury also !
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I'd like to read that "decision", got a link to it?
I'm sure we've all seen vehicles that were styled in such a way that they looked fast sitting in the driveway. Now, if this story is true and the decision actually survives the beating it's going to take in the media and in Federal courts, we might see people getting tickets for speeding while their car is f'n parked. And I would love to see how they plan to deal with the distinctions in most states that apply bigger penalties for certain milestones such as 10 over the limit, 20 over the limit, and "hang on to your azz you're going to jail" over the limit. I don't know about a "highly trained officer", but I can't watch folks drive by and estimate their speeds to the nearest 1 mph.
Oh, btw, don't even think about buying a Hayabusa if this stuff is true. Once the cops figure out they'll do 180 mph plus, it will be instant ticket time every time you fire it up.
Jerry
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I'd like to read that "decision", got a link to it?
http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2010/oh-visual.pdf
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I'm trained and qualified to state unequivocally that twolanerider is speeding whenever his engine is running. Ditto 103, SBB, et al.
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and they were all worried about the Arizona Law and profiling,
This is the ultimate in profiling.........
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I'm trained and qualified to state unequivocally that twolanerider is speeding whenever his engine is running. Ditto 103, SBB, et al.
It's true. Jerry don't lie. Red bike looks so damn good it does look like it's speeding even when it's sitting still :apple: !
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Thanks for the link Twolane. After sorting through all the legalese, and trying to read between the lines, it appears that we have a case of an officer running radar and pulling an alleged violator clocked at 82 mph in a 60 mph zone. Being a nice fellow, he wrote the ticket for 79 mph to stay below the 20 mph over the limit threshold, whereupon the alleged violator can no longer just pay a fine but must also appear in court (meaning the officer must appear as well). So far, nothing terribly abnormal. But for whatever reason, the alleged violator decides to go to court anyway and fight the ticket.
Now we get to trial, and the alleged violator's attorney attempts the old "let me see your certification to operate that particular radar" defense strategy (I wonder if he also asked to see certification of calibration?). Oh crap, the officer didn't bring his certificate with him, and I get the impression this is where the visual speed calculation came into play. Throw out the radar, then we'll just say we verified the speed visually. Somehow, though, the 82 mph radar reading becomes 70 mph "visually", even though the ticket was written for 79 mph. Talk about measurement error and a huge tolerance. That's right up there with Harley's crank runout tolerance.
If someone is properly trained in visual speed estimation, and they have known distances over which they can time an object, I can see being able to say someone was grossly exceeding the limit. But if you're running radar, what are the odds that you are sitting there running mental calculations (in heavy traffic) on various vehicles? Isn't that why we have radar, so the officer doesn't have to calculate that stuff? The whole thing smells funny to me. And the idea that the state Supreme Court had nothing better to do than hear this BS should give us an idea of how much waste there is in the Judicial branch of government.
Jerry
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Two things, man if twolanerider drives like he responds, he is fast. Number two, I once went to court to fight a speeding ticket by a motorcycle cop in a school zone, as a matter of fact two tickets, one on the way to work and one on the way home. When questioned on how he judged my speed the officer said well your honor, if you go out in the lot and look at his car it looks as if it is going 50 just sitting there. Both cases thrown out and officer reprimanded.
This was in 1966 car a 1966 Fairlane GT with a 427 4 speed and no I honestly was not speeding at that time and place.
By the way, Dayton Ohio.
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Ohio was late getting onboard this. NY,NH,VT,SC,FLA,GA just a few I know do this.
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This is crazy and drifting towards a police state.