I saw a cop near the Petro in Bordentown NJ watching cars/trucks as they came thru the toll booth with binoculars, and signaling those not wearing seatbelts to pull over for their "awards".

you had your door unlocked????? I go into a scalehouse and get pulled in the first thing i do is make sure my door is locked.JMO

Live and learn what can I say.. It did take me for a surprise because when I pulled up there was nobody around, I still have no clue where he came from to be there that fast.

Exactly. if the cop doesn't show up, they are not going to make you reschedule for something like this. The cop has to be there to testify as to what he saw. If he isn't there, then you are not guilty, case closed.

I would not say case closed, courts can pretty much do as they wish. I agree they are supposed to drop it after an officer does not show up but that's up to the judge to grant the state a extension.

For tickets like this, if you contest it, the officer is requested to be present, but not required, at the court date. Not sure how it is in every state, but in Texas, the officer gets paid to attend these court appearances on their days off.

If they don't show, there is nobody else there present on their behalf to request an extension. Generally, they are going to be there though because it is overtime

Ok, It only happened once to me and I didn't say anything but that was umm quit a few years ago l.o.l.

Thanks NOW I know!

Tickets are not between the offender and the Judge. The game is played between the offender (Defendant) and the prosecution (Plaintiff). In some jurisdictions the officer takes on the role of the prosecution. The Judge is the referee. The Judge's job is to keep order and rule on procedural matters. If the trial is a "judge trial" as opposed to a "jury trial", he also takes on the role as fact finder and can determine guilt or innocence. If the trial is a "jury trial" the Judge is simply the referee and cannot pronounce the defendant guilty or innocent. However, if found guilty by a jury the Judge will impose the sentence based on the statutory guidelines, either incarceration and/or a fine.

If the case is set for trial and the officer fails to appear, the defendant would make the following motion: "Your Honor, I move to dismiss this case for failure to prosecute, or lack of prosecution". The Judge, as the referee, has a motion before him and will then ask the prosecution to respond. If the prosecution responds with a motion for continuance, the Judge now has both motions before him and must rule on both. The Judge will ask the prosecution if there is "good cause" for the continuance. Good cause is, for example, the officer is absent because he was ill, he was on vacation or administrative leave and not noticed of the trial date, or some other reasonable explanation containing some unforeseeable ground. If the Judge finds good cause the case will not be dismissed, if not, it will be dismissed.

If the jurisdiction is one that allows the officer to prosecute the case without the presence of the attorney for the city or the state, and the officer does not appear, the Judge does not have the discretion to continue the case, unless the officer had previously contacted the Judge and notified the Court of his non-appearance. Any time a Judge continues a case under the circumstances I just described in this paragraph, its because the defendant failed to make a motion to dismiss.

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The content on this post is intended only to provide a summary and general overview on matters of interest and is based upon the authors own experience(s). It is not intended to be comprehensive, nor does it constitute legal advice. You should seek legal, or other professional advice before acting or relying on any of the content within this post.

You know, its been a while, but I did run across a driver's post somewhere out there in the big dub dub dub world that ran his video capture through his dash mounted cell/pda phone. He recorded his whole driving day. Said it was possible to do on the low quality setting and with a good size 1 gig card. So in any traffic situation in front of him he was covered. He'd erase the day if there was no incident and repeat the next day.

He also mentioned that he knew of drivers that mounted two additional camera's via Bluetooth that peeked back on driver side and passenger side. Whole set up he said was less than $500 bucks.

I'll post this in tech stuff too. It might bless some people into that stuff.

But for $500 of equipment and very little effort, you get a video record that will head off any potential career ending court case


Varmit

Over in AU my older brother was a cop - one thing he said that has always stuck with me and I still do it to this day:
Put your belt on before you start your engine and don't remove it till you stop your engine. And that includes passengers front and rear as it's mandatory that all persons in the vehicle wear a belt - no exceptions.