Advice from a cop on fighting tickets...

OK well I'll just say that everyone should fight there LIDAR tickets then all because I guess so many officers don't do as they are trained. I mean they teach you not to bounce the laser off the mirrors and I you should aim the laser at the center of the windshield. As far you just staying with the flow of traffic and that Dodge Ram being in front of you yea I could see where that could have been dropped. But in my county court house the judge then would have asked the officer how close you were to that front vehicle which I'm guessing was pretty close in a 55 MPH zone so the judge would've asked the officer so they were still traveling at a high rate of speed around other vehicles correct? The officer would have said yes and you still would have probably been charged for 5-10 over. Running in a pack doesn't give you the right to speed. It goes back to that old saying just because everybody else is jumping off a cliff are you going to do it too? Congrats on beating the ticket I'm being serious. I just hope you learned to slow down. I mean considering the number one killer on America's highways is speed.

But that's okay I'll be done with this thread since apparently so many officers do their job all wrong. I guess you all should take it like this, as a police officer no two calls or traffic stops are the same, so therefore I nor any other officer or former officer on here can tell you what to do for every situation or ticket. I can only tell you what happens most the time. If you choose to accept it then great if you chose not too then also great.

As most you probably can see just from this thread why being a police officer can really sucks because no matter what you do or say somebody always got an excuse for why they were doing what they were doing. Top that off with all the political crap that comes with it too like people getting out of crap just because they know so and so or because they're the mayor's nephew and you can soon see how becoming a police officer and trying to do the right thing can make anyone not want to be one anymore. I'm sure there are certain people on this thread that think they would love for all the cops to quit doing their job, but you know while your away God nowhere and someone breaks into you house where your wife and kids are and they call 911 and the dispatcher says sorry we don't have any officers but I'll send some firefighters over let me know how much that helps. If you don't have a wife and kids well just imagine it's somebody you love or care about. You may see police officers as an evil but like it or not they are a necessary evil and yes this includes monitoring the highways. Also police don't make the laws they enforce them. There were many times I had to enforce a law I didn't agree with but I did it because it was my job. Just like I'm sure you've have to do thing in you job you didn't agree with but you still had to do it. If you don't like your state laws then talk to the law makers.

 

Wrong! Don't have a clue where you are from but the only way you get in my car, is with braclets on, period. Certification card, not needed on the side of the road. Court if you want to see it, you can see it.

Wrong. With the newest models that are out there, same direction models, they wil pick up 2 vehicle's speed to include the fastest in the target area. The old KR-10's would go for the biiger units. The newer ones, that is not the case. I agree the more you use it, the better you get and more proficient. LIDAR, I have hit trucks at almost 10,000 feet away in the rear. Nothing to hit them at 3500 ft. Eat a sandwhich and wait on them to get to you. The old LTi 20/20 was a fine piece of equipment as wellas Kustom's Prolaser III.

 

I must be boring to you guys.

I do not speed.

 

I never got to use Laser,always had regular old radar.But i could pick up a vehicle on a long straight away form about a mile off.

 

But what about this ?
hcso506
Light Load Member




in my experience as a LEO,the easiest way to beat me out of a speeding ticket was to show up for court.Most of the time,i wouldn't show for traffic court on speeders.Not that I am lazy or anything,but most I didn't get pais any extra for the court time at all the places i worked,I usually was on a day off and was working at another part time job to make ends meet ,since my royalty checks from all those tickets and DUI arrests i did never seemed to find my mailbox!
I'm not buying any of it . Like you said Kabar , judges aren't going to tolerate court workers working on cases only to have them dismissed because an officer doesn't show up most of the time .
hcso506 went on talking about speeders showing up with attorneys . That's not how it works . A good attorney will cut a deal with the prosecutor before the court date and get charges reduced or dismissed without a court appearance . Been there , done that . Had a "must appear" speeding ticket . I gave it to my attorney and a week before the court date was notified the charge was reduced to faulty equipment and case settled with no court appearance required . Prosecutors reduce charges to reduce case load . Show up at court and you've eliminated that incentive .
With the exception of dieselbear who is known and respected by members I haven't seen any post of any value by an leo in this thread .

 

Let me explain myself.I have always worked for very small agencies in rural areas of Oklahoma and Texas.Most of the time,our city court would be a local attorney hired as Judge,court once a month.Most of the time the Judge was there to assess fines as long as the officer showed up and the defendant showed up.There was no prosecutor,the officer was the prosecutor.Each officer would wit down witht eh judge at a table and call the defendants.Pretty simple stuff,you get called up and the judge reads out the info and asks how you plea??If you plea not guilty,the judge will swear you in,then has the officer tell his side of the story and then the defendant gets to tell his side.The judge would make his decision from the stories.
When I worked county,District judges handled the Traffic Dockets.I have never had to testify in District court on a traffic ticket in over 16 years.It never gets that far that i have to come testify.
I just thought I woul let you know how small town Oklahoma courts work.And by small town i mean towns that are luck if they have a Sonic in town and the counties have a population of maybe 15,000 or so.

 

gotta love those backwoods lawyers, and no I'm not a jailhouse lawyer, but I #### well don't expect to be taken advantage of either by some crooked cop, crooked lawyer, crooked judge, or "good ol' boy network". Oh and while your calling me a "jailhouse lawyer", I guess I should be proud of that, because as a cop, someone who has to write legal and legible reports, your spelling, punctuation, and sentance structure suck.

Oh I so hope I someday get a speeding ticket in your jurisdiction and go before one of your judges. Pay attention officer, if a judge socks me or anyone with the "highest fine allowed by law" he better have a #### good reason. Perhaps you and your judges have never read the Constitution, it's a great document, especially the 8th Ammendment - Prohibition of excessive bail and fines and cruel and unusual punishment. Secondly, it is my legal right as a defendent in a court case to obtain any and all information that I feel may help my case, it is the court/prosecutor/cops legal duty to provide me with that evidence should I request it. It's call seeking discovery, and your required by law to provide it to me.

Oh and you know, you and your court sound like a Nebraska State Trooper I once dealt with. I got a ticket on US 385 outside Bridgeport, Ne., I was heading to a customer. Officer clocked me at 70 in a 65 (on cruise control), there was no reason to argue with him about it. In fact, I knew I was caught and was pulled over on the side of the road, brakes set, hazards on, before he got stopped behind me, and as he was walking up to my door I shut the truck down. I was as polite as could be. From the minute he opened his mouth I knew it was not going to end well. By the time he was done, I had a ticket for speeding 72 in a 65 (he even showed me the radar saying 70. I thought about fighting it, when I got to my 2nd stop in Scottsbluff, Ne. I was talking with the office manager, her husband was a local Sheriff's deputy. She called and let me talk to him, the first question he asked me was the officers name/badge number. When I told him, he just laughed and told me to pay the fine and be done with it. The judge in Bridgeport was this troopers uncle, the entire family had a hardon for truckers, and if I tried to fight the ticket, the judge would probably throw the entire court house at me in penalties. The fine was only $75.00 so I paid it. When I called some lawyers in the area about fighting the ticket, as soon as they heard who the officer was, they all declined to take the case. One lawyer went so far as to tell me that even if the officer completly screwed the pooch on the ticket, since it was him and against a trucker, the judge would still nail me to the wall.

LOL, I love those kind of judges, watched one do that in Moab several years back. I was in there on a speeding ticket in my personal vehicle following a weekend getaway. Court was supposed to start at 9am and it did, the trooper casually sauntered in at 10:40am holding up court with his delay. The judge chewed his butt for not even bothering to call and say he was running late, the trooper gave some excuse that the judge didn't like. He then dismissed 14 in person tickets, and told his clerk to return as case dismissed over 2 dozen tickets that had mail in fines that were sitting on her desk for processing.

Every ticket I have ever fought, except one, did the officer not show up. In most real dept.'s they are required by policy or in some states, state law, to show up for a trial on a ticket. Most judges will dismiss the ticket if the officer doesn't show up. LOL that your mad at the judge, too bad, the cop failed to do his job properly so the judge followed the law.

actually, there was about three to four car lengths between me and the Ram. Considering the officer was pointing downhill, on a road with a lot of crests between me and him so there was no way that he could get a 100% positive lock on any vehicle especially at the range that the device showed. BTW, when I drive, if reasonably possible, I travel with the flow of traffic, it's the safest rate to drive.

First off, don't make assumptions, it makes a ### out of you and me. I am married into a family of cops (bro-in-law, niece, nephew, 5 cousins and 2 of their current spouses are local cops, another cousin is SP in the Navy, another cousin is a former US Marshall. Several of my parents friends are current or retired cops in the Denver area) and at one time, til I screwed up my own life, I was going to school to be a cop. From the time I was 15 til 18 was I in the police explorers with two different dept's, Colorado State Patrol and Broomfield (Colorado) PD. So while your making assumptions about me and my opinion of cops, let me enlighten you further. I was in the Army going to MP school until I blew out my right knee, it was a known existing injury that my recruiter concealed on my papers and told me to lie about. Unfortunately, an x-ray and MRI revealed to Army docs. this and I got a one way discharge home and my recruiter lost his recruiting job. Secondly, I spent 4 yrs as a Security Guard here in Denver, 2.5 of those years as an armed guard, I hold the distinction of being the youngest armed guard issued a license in Denver (2 days after I turned 23, as Denver at that time would not issue a armed license to anyone under 23) I also was certified as an armed guard for Hospital Security (which requried a special national certification to work as an armed guard in most hospitals). The security company I worked for also provided security for three nuclear power plants (Minnesota Prairie Island I & II, Monticello), I had already gone through the first steps of training to transfer to one of those divisions when I screwed up. Which had I not screwed up and went through the training and transferred to this division, I would have been considered a class II police officer in the state of Minnesota.

Now, I have the utmost respect for any officer if they deserve it. Like saying goes "Respect, like trust is earned, it is never given". If an officer is going to treat me like crap, then I will respectfully treat him like the crap that he is. I expect an officer to be a professional and do his job like a professional, I suspect that if I encountered dieselbear in the line of work, he would treat me with respect and expect me to treat him the same. So far, from what I have seen posted, it would take a lot for me to give the same to some of the other (ex) officers who have posted on here.

Bravo Rick

 

Well,you know,it is somethimes hard for us backwoods,crooked small town cops to spell right,use correct grammar and all that other good stuff.But it is very nice of you to politely remind me of it.It don't take alot of training/schoolin to write SPEEDING in the offense line and copy down the info from the license.And as far as highest fines,apparently you don't read very well,cause I definantly posted Highest fine allowed by Law,not what ever the Judge decided to fine the person.
But your attitude towards LEOs,you know real LEOS,not rental cops is very apparent......you never got to be a cop,only security.A little hatred for cops that manned up and put it on the line.
In all my comments,i gave my personal experience.I stated that other officers do it diferently.We can beat each otehr to death over the right and wronf way to fight a ticket,but the fact iswhat happens in my area would not fly in other areas and so on and so on.So let it be.The LEOs,ex or otherwise IMO have given very good and useful information in the thread.They have taken ALOT of heat.One person even posted a video of a fatality wreck that has nothing to do with the Subject of this thread,just a big sucker punch to LEOs IMO.But that is to be expected,like another posted said,Officers have caught alot of heat on this thread for giving advise.Thats the way it goes I guess.

 

Well since you decided to make it personal:

1. Again, you can't spell or create a sentence properly, you run on's and grammer make it hard to decipher.

2. Pay attention, the reason I didn't become a cop is because of some other stupid mistake that I made in my life and am still paying for. It has nothing to do with "manned up", becuase if that's the case, then there are some cops who "manned up" only because they were wimps in school and got their butts kicked and needed to do something to make themselves feel like a man. When I screwed up, I had already gone through DRCOG (Denver Regional Council of Governments) police testing program (which Denver and 17 other agencies subscribe to for future officer recruits), I had passed the written test, barely (because of my knee) passed the initial physical, and passed the first psych. test, as well as a first battery of interviews with a review board. My time as "rental cop" was actually going a long way towards helping me become a cop, with things I had accomplished during that time and prior to, it showed a history of working towards the goal of becoming a cop, and not resting on my laurels of just doing the minimum needed for my job. Oh and while you bashing me as being a "rental cop", I had 7 busts for possesion of controlled substance to my credit (I worked "undercover" for the security company in conjunction with the local PD at one of the shopping malls and helped nab several people for distribution of marijuana, cocaine and crack). Also prevented one armed robbery of a bank (it was my being suspicious of a person sitting in a car and alerting the cops that led to a bust of someone suspected in another abnk robbery), as well apprehension of two random robbers at the hospital I worked, (they would roam the halls of the attached medical office building and look for open offices with no one around and steal womens persons from behind the counter). So while you may bash me, that's fine, my record speaks for itself on that matter.

3. I don't hate cops, I hate cops that are idiots, and not all cops are idiots, I have the utmost respect for any officer/agency who deserves it. However, day in and day out I encounter my share of cops who are idiots.

4. Again, if the maximum allowable fine by law for a simple speeding ticket is $999, a judge had better have a good reason for assessing that fine. Assessing it because I came in there and sought discovery "wasting the courts and officers time" would fall under a prohibition of the 8th Amend., that is not a reason to justify it. Now, if I was speeding, then when stopped argued with the officer, or was beligerent to him, the court, or had a history of such behavior or a long history of traffic infractions, then perhaps the judge might be justified.

5. Continuing with this idea, I once had an officer who wrote in his notes that I should receive the maximum penalty for a speeding ticket. He didn't note the reason why, when my lawyer got ahold of the officers notes, and brought this up in court, the officer couldn't remember why he wrote that down. But then my lawyer recalled that he dealt with this same officer a few other times and the officer had made the same comment, this made the judge query the officer about it.

 

Some of us just don't consider a Buford P . Justice from a 1 horse town to be a REAL LEO .
How many of them have a degree in criminal justice or any kind of training at all ?
Every profession has its bad apples and law enforcement has more than its share . I read all the time about cops murdering, molesting and selling drugs . I'm not impressed at all with someone waving a badge .