REPORT: Parents of teen with speeding ticket fighting citation with personal GPS data
It seems as though there may just be a positive side to those unwelcome GPS-based vehicle tracking devices... especially if you are a teenager. Shaun Malone, a 17-year-old California resident, was cited by radar-yielding authorities for driving 62 mph in a 45 mph zone in 2007. Faced with a $194 fine (and some inflating insurance premiums), Shaun's parents fought back arguing their son's vehicle was equipped with a satellite-based tracking device that monitored Shaun's speed – and it showed he was doing 45 mph when he was stopped.
While they can be affected by poor reception or noise in the radio signal, GPS-based speedometers are generally considered the benchmark for measuring velocity. On the other hand, radar measurements are also considered very accurate, as long as the human at the other end of the device is correctly trained and is tracking the proper vehicle. At stake is the credibility of radar. As Doppler-based speed enforcement has become a primary source of revenue for law enforcement agencies nationwide, police don't want their technology challenged. With that in mind, the local Petaluma police have spent a reported $15,000 on the trial. The case is to be decided in the coming weeks.
[Source: Christian Science Monitor]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
nardvark 8:39AM (9/18/2009)
What this really challenges is the assumption that the police are:
1) Using the radar properly
2) Reporting that speed properly (ie not inflating the number to make extra tickets)
3) capable of being trusted implicitly, with no paper trail for the actual measurement.
If motorists can now produce an impartial, third party source of data, it threatens the absolute control the police officer has over the ticket-writing situation. If they're really honest and ethical, they shouldn't have a problem with this.
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Aprime 8:55AM (9/18/2009)
Yeah, would be nice if there was something to back up their claims.
I mean I got a parking ticket two days ago and it says I was parked on a street I was about 900 meters from.
(I kinda deserved it though. I mean, aside from the fact that my college had a 3 week tolerance policy for parking passes last year and I thought it would be the same this year (I registered the week before, meaning on the second week, but didn't have time to wait in line for a pass), but turns out it wasn't.) I'm not sur whether I should bother contesting because if I'm found guilty my fine nearly doubles (it's 55 dollars right now).
Shamdiddly 8:55AM (9/18/2009)
I have gotten out of one bogus speeding ticket on a residential street on my way to work. A young police officer claimed he had clocked me driving 35 in a 25, however, I was taking vehicle data for my job and had proof otherwise. I tried to show him my speed trace, where I left my driveway, stopped at a stop sign and where he pulled me over - but it only aggravated him.
I got a ticket and I showed up to court to fight it.
I brought my computer and my data file and showed the magistrate everything I showed the officer. He was genuinely interested and quite disappointed in the officer for wasting everybody's time by writing the ticket. The infraction was dropped. : )
Maybe there is hope for this lad...
jv2k 10:51AM (9/18/2009)
Yes this is a great precedent for now, but it wont be long before those same radar devices begin issuing tickets.
I can't even fathom how godawful the system will be.
briandrake 1:55PM (9/18/2009)
"If they're really honest and ethical"
They wouldn't be cops.
robert bell 8:43AM (9/18/2009)
Surely you are not suggesting the cops would ever fabricate excessive speeding in order to issue a few tickets and make their weekly quota are you?
Having driven almost fifty years and having received a total of five speeding tickets in that time, I can attest from personal experience two of the five were bogus. Yeah, three were well deserved but in the two other cases I was victimized by cops in "speed traps" who inflated my real speed by ten to fifteen miles per hour to make their day. One a Georgia sheriff suggested it might be a lot easier and less complicated if I just paid him the fine right then and there. I did and it never registered on my license. Wonder if the paper work got lost?
Half of the towns and hamlets in this nation rely on speeding tickets as a primary source of revenue to justify the police departments. In the age of computers and irrefutable evidence they should be afraid, very afraid.
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tC 8:41AM (9/18/2009)
I've been pulled over for 48 in a 25 (was doing about 33) back when I was in high school. The next day I found out that 2 other people were pulled over doing 48, from the same cop, all within an hour.
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Aprime 8:43AM (9/18/2009)
Don't you love quotas?
xpolarx 12:22PM (9/18/2009)
Ha, that sucks...I've got you beat, though! When I was in high school, my friend and I were pulled over for street racing because we were "suspiciously" riding side-by-side. The speed? A steady 34mph. The speed limit? 35mph.
The cop said he would do us a favor by dropping the street racing charge and ticketing us for 44 in a 35. Awesome, right? We both took our ticket to court and, unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to fight it because the cop didn't show for either of our court dates.
I guess when he wrote the tickets, he thought we'd be stupid enough to just pay them and when that didn't happen, he knew there was no real way to logically explain in court why he'd given us the tickets in the first place.
...and cops still wonder why people don't like or trust them.
sitruc 4:19PM (9/18/2009)
I was pulled doing 62 in a 55 a couple years ago. I was driving a beat up pick-up truck that wasn't even capable of pulling 55 up the incline I was ticketed on. The officer was driving the opposite direction and had just gotten over the hill and was heading downhill. He immediately turned on his lights and made a U-turn in the grass median and across three lanes. He cut me off while my truck was struggling to even get up the hill. I nearly went off of the road and there was no pull-off. My ticket was thrown out when I went to court and explained to the judge that the truck couldn't go that fast up that hill and I noted that all of the people before me were also ticketed for 62mph. Fortunately it was a small town and the judge actually knew the truck I had before it was under my ownership. He threw out the rest of the cases by the officer after me.
BoneHeadOtto 8:43AM (9/18/2009)
"local Petaluma police have spent a reported $15,000"
make that the local Petaluma tax payers. While i agree wrongful ticketing sucks, frivolous lawsuits suck even more because everyone looses except the laywers. The 17 year old is facing inflated insurance premiums because they already got a ticket this year and cant take $50 worth of defensive driving. I agree the $200 ticket sucks but burning thousands of tax payer dollars sucks even more. I urge the Petaluma tax payers to sue that family for wasting their tax dollars!
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J Net 8:48AM (9/18/2009)
So you’re implying that citizens should just roll over and admit fault even though there is none. You sir, would make a great addition to the Petaluma police force.
Derek 8:56AM (9/18/2009)
Frivolous lawsuit? The parents aren't suing the county, they are disputing a ticket... something every citizen has the right to do.
CB 9:00AM (9/18/2009)
Mr. BoneHeadOtto,
You truly justify your name. In your dream world, anyone accused of any wrong by the government should just plead guilty in order to save the taxpayer money regardless of whether they did anything wrong. I bet you think those Duke lacrosse players should have just admitted guilt, because, you know, the taxpayer had to fit the bill for conducting an investigation and prosecuting them.
Someday you might get pulled over and cited for something you didn't do. I bet your tune changes then.
If the taxpayers in Petaluma, CA have a problem with the spending of $15,000, they should take it out on their local police and those who fund them.
tC 9:09AM (9/18/2009)
Yes, because opening up more lawsuits would lower taxes. You sir, are a bonehead.
BoneHeadOtto 9:19AM (9/18/2009)
obviously my statement about suing the family was in jest MR tC to point out the stupidity of most lawsuits.
But hopefully something beneficial will come out of this beyond just dismissing the ticket. Hopefully this will result in better checks and balances for ticket writing; such as radars that print out what speed they recorded, at what time, with a picture of the car they are pointing at so the police cannot easily wrongfully use radar. It would suck if a citizen protesting money being taken wrongfully just manages to do more of the same to the taxpayers with no real changes coming about. In these days of tight budgets im just sick of money going to lawyers instead of something more useful like education.
mk15 9:27AM (9/18/2009)
You forgot the "/sarcasm" at the end.
Car125 10:57AM (9/18/2009)
They shouldn't be mad at the family who is fighting the charges. If it has escalated to the point where the city is spending $15K to fight it, I'm sure that the family is probably paying an attorney $300/hr to fight on their side. If the comes out that the officer did falsely write the ticket, he should be fired and be made to pay for the legal fees to the city. I'm not saying all officers of the law are corrupt (more long the lines of being forced), but when they start using their position of trust from the community to reach a ticket quota or just hassle people, that's wrong.
Jesse 3:29PM (9/18/2009)
There has to be some recourse to the cops going to trial about it. Dont sue the family for fighting a stupid charge. Put pressure on the police department for having crooked cops and then trying to cover it up.
I got pulled over in Kansas on a road trip (i have california plates = instant target) and the cop "clocked" me (he was driving towards me so he somehow defies the physics of radar) at going 78 in a 70. I had my cruise set at 70.
Cops have been trained and conditioned to act like this because they always win in court no matter if they are telling the truth or not.
blazineric 8:47AM (9/18/2009)
If the fine paid for traffic violations went to a charity, or other "good cause" there would be no incentive for anyone to get a ticket any more.
If I was in government this would be one of my top policies.
All Traffic Fines become donations to a charity, or research facility for medicine or alternate energy.
For a government body to DEPEND on a income based on people violating laws is just insanity.
Someone should organize a NO VIOLATION WEEKEND or something and have everyone in a state be extra carful not to violate any traffic laws. Then see how the town likes having that reduced income.
Please challenge me and say that traffic fines should go to the government body for some real reason.. I dare you.
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