Pittsburgh police refunding speeding fines given by mistake
A pair of Pittsburgh Revenue Officers misunderstood the rules surrounding the use of some LIDAR gear loaned to the department for testing and issued a raft of tickets that the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police now has to retract. Apparently LIDAR is only approved for use when teamed with other systems like VASCAR and ENRADD, which measure speed in different ways, and these boys in blue were using it solo. Their mistake instantly invalidates about 650 speeding fines that were issued on account of the loaned LIDAR equipment.Pittsburgh police chief Nate Harper has apologized for the erroneous tickets, and motorists with LIDAR-only tickets were encouraged to request a court hearing. If the citation has already been paid, the unlawfully caught speeders will be reimbursed. A full refund for a speeding ticket is novel, but our sarcastic side wants to make a crack about the payouts being funded by shortening yellow lights at intersections with camera-bots. Thanks for the tip, Eddy!
[Source: WTAE, Photo: nist.gov]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Guenther 11:11AM (4/16/2008)
I'm curious to see how their DMV/Sec of State handles removing any points from driving records. Is there a process for that sort of thing?
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Bert 11:13AM (4/16/2008)
... and any increases in insurance rates. Kinda like closing the door after the horses have escaped.
Reality_check 11:22AM (4/16/2008)
This happens in a episode of Everybody Hates Chris were everybody was above the speed limit by 8 mph.
zach 11:19AM (4/16/2008)
go to postgazette.com - all points are being removed and the city will work with peoples' insurance companies to fix any erroneous rate increases.
i'm sure it'll still be a pain in the @ss for the people involved, but the city seems to be working to fix it.
speedball3 11:24AM (4/16/2008)
That's really cool that Pittsburgh would do that and also take care of the insurance part of it. Kudos to Pittsburgh!
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Mark 11:47AM (4/16/2008)
Our streets still suck...
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LMBVette 11:53AM (4/16/2008)
Not as bad as Michigan's....I've lived in both places....Michigan's are horrible.
MJC 12:54PM (4/16/2008)
I live in North Western Michigan. I JUST drove through the entire state of PA from NJ - OH.. PA roads for the most part are exponentially better than the roads here in Michigan. I was on I78, I80, 33, and many other side roads.
I actually wondered how our roads could be so bad compared to PA. I understand we had a GREAT winter, but the roads were already so bad that this winter just put the final nail in the coffin.. but i think our governor's plan on creating new jobs and maintaing jobs is to make sure we bust the crap out of our cars so we have to pay to get them fixed or buy new ones.
GENIUS PLAN! Our governor rocks (rocks those who have their hands out anyways).
Chris 11:46AM (4/16/2008)
It comes down to one of two things...both warrant them being fired:
A. The cops involved are too stupid to listen and follow orders which means they aren't qualified to serve and protect.
or
B. The cops involved understood and just couldn't wait to abuse their authority and take it out on the same people who pay their over-inflated salaries.
If I ever messed up like this on my job and caused hundreds of people this kind of inconvenience I'd be out on the street. So should these pigs!
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Mark 11:54AM (4/16/2008)
The pay range for the city's approximately 1,060 patrol officers, detectives, sergeants, lieutenants and commanders is $35,082 for beginning patrol officers to $73,274 for commanders, whose rank includes the department's public information officer.
overinflated, to get shot at, seriously?
stealth 12:42PM (4/16/2008)
@ Mark
your forgetting the massive amounts of overtime they get.
Chris 12:44PM (4/16/2008)
Mark,
Yes.
First the chance of a cop getting shot at work is less than his chance of wrecking his own patrol car. Second they do reap a lot of benefits for their work.
It isn't all gun battles.... quit thinking tv has anything to do with real life. It never ceases to amaze me what people value something at when it doesn't come directly from their pocket.
Mark 1:36PM (4/16/2008)
maybe I have bias from friends being in service and on the force, but when a friend takes a nato round in the chest on his routine patrols, 35k doesn't sound like it's worth it. All I'm asking is would you do it?
Chris 2:00PM (4/16/2008)
Take a bullet??? LOL Yea right!!!! Had they been concerned with catching dangerous criminals there would be no time to illegally use LIDAR on speeders. If I were a cop or in charge of any police department, and my concern was stopping crime..... arrests for assault, battery, robbery and drug dealing better outnumber speeding by 10-to-1.
tankd0g 11:50AM (4/16/2008)
On loan...from the insurance company that owns the manufacturer of the guns no doubt..
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Mike K 12:09PM (4/16/2008)
Pittsburgh police refunding speeding fines given without regard for the law.
There fixed it for you.
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Chris 12:44PM (4/16/2008)
Finally, some responsibility!
Dont you think if they were doing it to be d-bag cops, they would have just covered it up instead of going public and fixing it?
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Dan 1:27PM (4/16/2008)
I don't see a practical or moral difference between laser measured revenue ticketing and the distance over time measured revenue ticketing methods they were supposed to use instead.
Revenue tickets thrown away for any reason are a step in the right direction though.
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Razor 2:18PM (4/16/2008)
Is this part of the system which looks like a field goal post in the median and on the side of the road? There was a section of road in the south side of Pittsburgh in which people were getting nailed once a week for about two months straight. I'm wondering if it was LIDAR or something else.
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Robert 6:21PM (4/16/2008)
Shush keep it down you'll destroy the universe.
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