Ok, here is my story. It was 2am and I was going on an expressway where the speed limit is 50mph. I was going around 60 (I usually speed 10 over the limit, but anyways). I passed an intersection after which an expressway becomes a regular street and the speed limit is 35. I know this perfectly, as I drive on this street eversince I got a license (6 yrs now). So as I was crossing an intersection, I slowed down to about 45mph. As I was going down the street, I saw a car behind me quickly approaching. Since I'm always cautious of cops, still not knowing that it was actually a cop though, I slowed down to about 40, figuring that at this hour it is unlikely someone would stop me for going 5 over (although possible). The car kept on approaching, so I slowed down to 35, but as the car got close to me, I saw a red light turn on in my rear view mirror. I pulled over and the cop (a woman) came over and asked me if I know what I'm being stopped for. This is a rediculous question by the way, cops look really unprofessional when they ask that. As if she didn't know what she stopped me for and she was asking me, hoping I would know. Come on! So I said, "probably speeding." Then she started asking me all these questions like: Have I been convicted of anything, am I on probabtion etc. Then she looked into my eyes with a flashlight as the optometrists would do, probably to determine whether I'm on drugs or drunk or whatever. I guess it was kind of reasonable, although I find it a bit surprising, because during the numeruous times I've been pulled over before, nobody ever did that. And my behavior was not odd by any means. So anyways, she asked for all those things, license registration etc. And in 5-10 minutes came back gave me a ticket to sign. Ok, here is the grand finale part and THE MOST IMORTANT ONE!! I was curious how did she determine my speed and I asked whether she caught me on a RADAR. She said "no", the way she got the speed was by having to chase me at 85mph to catch up to me. And she said that I was going 60. Since I know I was going 60 before the intersection, I asked exactly this: "Was it before the intersection?" She said "no" (!!!!!) it was after! And I sincerely know that I was not going that fast after an intersection! So I told her that I don't see a logic behind her reasoning and it was very unfair. But I did go ahead and sign the ticket. As she was leaving, I called her once again and asked, "Can I ask you one last question?" She came back. I said, "How long have you been a patrol officer? She said, "What does it have to do with anything?", I said "I'm just curious, you don't have to answer." She said, "Then I won't", and took off.
Ok, lastly, here is my conclusion. First of all, this chasing at 85 miles thing doesn't make any sense. So according to her logic, if she was gong 125, that would have meant that I was going 100 on a street? I heard that the cops have to undergo a special training and get a certain certificate which says that they are qualified to estimate the speeds without radar. In order to get the certificate, every time they have to be accurate within 3 miles, I think. And this training involves a cop standing and watching the cars pass by (correct me if I'm wrong). In this case, she was chasing me from behind, which makes it a lot more difficult to estimate. At a traffic school I heard once someone contested a similar situation and won. So definetely I'm going to contest that. Secondly, if I would be an officer (as unlikely as it is), I would probably be proud of my job and if someone asked me what is my experience, I wouldn't hesitate to answer. She refused to answer, as though she is ashamed of it, or doesn't have much. She looked like 25-30 years old. Thirdly, on a ticket where it should say citing officer's name and badge number, there is a blank. So I don't even know her name. Can this be a reason for dismissal? Forthly, the violation code is 22350 which is actually a basic speed law, and in the description it says excess speed. I'm not sure if this is a correct point, but isn't excess speed a separate violation? If so, there is another reason to contest it. If a cop cites you with a wrong violation code, the case should be dissmissed. However I'm not sure about this point.
So as you can see there is a number of questionable issues here. The cop seemeed pretty fresh and incompetent to me. But what could I do? When describing this, I tried to be as objective as possible, because I know that in these situations people tend to be biased. I would appreciate if anyone could advice me on how to go about this violation in court. What should I say etc? I'm certainly going to pleed "not guilty." I'm sorry if I was too wordy, It's just I got this ticket less than two hours ago, and everything is fresh in my mind right now, so I have to free it up before I go to sleep. Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance for your help.
Ok, lastly, here is my conclusion. First of all, this chasing at 85 miles thing doesn't make any sense. So according to her logic, if she was gong 125, that would have meant that I was going 100 on a street? I heard that the cops have to undergo a special training and get a certain certificate which says that they are qualified to estimate the speeds without radar. In order to get the certificate, every time they have to be accurate within 3 miles, I think. And this training involves a cop standing and watching the cars pass by (correct me if I'm wrong). In this case, she was chasing me from behind, which makes it a lot more difficult to estimate. At a traffic school I heard once someone contested a similar situation and won. So definetely I'm going to contest that. Secondly, if I would be an officer (as unlikely as it is), I would probably be proud of my job and if someone asked me what is my experience, I wouldn't hesitate to answer. She refused to answer, as though she is ashamed of it, or doesn't have much. She looked like 25-30 years old. Thirdly, on a ticket where it should say citing officer's name and badge number, there is a blank. So I don't even know her name. Can this be a reason for dismissal? Forthly, the violation code is 22350 which is actually a basic speed law, and in the description it says excess speed. I'm not sure if this is a correct point, but isn't excess speed a separate violation? If so, there is another reason to contest it. If a cop cites you with a wrong violation code, the case should be dissmissed. However I'm not sure about this point.
So as you can see there is a number of questionable issues here. The cop seemeed pretty fresh and incompetent to me. But what could I do? When describing this, I tried to be as objective as possible, because I know that in these situations people tend to be biased. I would appreciate if anyone could advice me on how to go about this violation in court. What should I say etc? I'm certainly going to pleed "not guilty." I'm sorry if I was too wordy, It's just I got this ticket less than two hours ago, and everything is fresh in my mind right now, so I have to free it up before I go to sleep. Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance for your help.
