I lost respect for the police today

[undeterred]

I got a speeding ticket in July which I am contesting, and the "trial" was today. The day that I got the ticket I noticed that the officer had written down that the speed limit was 35, when in fact it was 25. At the time I didn't notice that the other information on the ticket was incorrect. I took pictures of the street and the street signs I drove down to bring to trial.

Before my case was called I saw two police officers talking to each other, and recognized one of them as the one who came up to my car when the ticket was written. This officer did not testify against me, however. A police officer who I had never seen in my life was a "witness" against me. And he described how I was driving down the street from west to east, past a Catholic church and school, going 41 in a 25 mile zone.

In reality I was driving south to north past a Catholic church and school, going 41 in a 35 mile zone, and was pulled over by a police officer who sat in the audience.

The officer testified that he clocked me from behind, but a police car was never behind mine. Someone had to have clocked me from across an intersection.

It was bizarre. In a speeding case you expect to argue about the speed, right? But I granted the speed, it sounded about right. The facts of the case presented were absolutely false however. I was driving out of the town I work in, and I have never taken the route that I was ticketed for. I have never seen the officer who testified against me as a witness before today.

Truthfully, I'm not that familiar with landmarks and names of streets in this city. I never expected this and I was angry and argumentative instead of calm and cooperative. I was fined and will have points on my license, although I have options to appeal- probably in front of the same judge who decided to today that somebody was lying, and it had to be me.

Do they still have quotas for tickets in Beloit WI? Can an officer pull someone over and change the facts to make it a violation? Can one officer pretend he is the one who pulled you over when it was his buddy that did it?

I thought that the officer made an honest mistake. I'll never give the police that much credit again.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Was the speed limit 25 or 35?

You kinda contradicted yourself.

As for the two officers, often theres one that gave you the ticket that you see, and the one behind you with the radar gun that you don't see.

[Donnachaidh]

2. they *tag team* speeders here

one has the gun, and is usally parked. Then the other car chases.

And they usually do it everywhere EXCEPT where it's needed.

[undeterred]

3. On the street that I actually drove down, the speed limit was 35

On the street that they said I drove down, the speed limit was 25

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Huh.

So you're saying the cops perjured themselves to give you a speeding ticket?

[undeterred]

5. Bizarre, isn't it?

Maybe they have a fun little game going with this particular judge.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. It sure is bizarre.

The judge didn't believe you, eh? Yup, must be a conspiracy.

[Bjornsdotter]

7. Not surprised

Beloit is known for this type of ticketing....at one time Illinois insurance agents used to ignore tickets given out by Beloit cops to people from Illinois.

Sorry it happened to you.

Cheers

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. You have my sympathy

I was given a ticket years ago for-get this-stopping at a stop sign, and turning right when there was no traffic coming. Seems a truck was a half mile down the road when I turned right. It was the end of the month, and the cop had to get in his quota. I paid the fine (a whole day's pay when every penny counted), but later checked my driving record with the state. The cop had never turned it into the state. Turns out the town (it was a town cop)was notorious for making it's money via these bogus tickets.

[Mist]

9. I tend to think 95% of traffic tickets are about revenue. nt

[undeterred]

10. I am more the type of driver who follows the limit closely

than someone prone to speeding. In areas you don't know as well, its easier to make a mistake. But I sue know what street I was driving on that day!

[Der Blaue Engel]

13. I got a ticket once for not stopping on my moped

There were two police cars in the intersection and cops outside the cars talking to each other, so, in fact, I stopped, wondered what was up, waited a bit, and then slowly turned left in front of the cars (they weren't blocking the left turn, just the forward traffic).

I was pulled over and asked if I knew why I was getting stopped. Feeling pretty stupid, I thought there must have been some rule about not driving past police cars in an intersection.

Cop says, "You didn't stop at that stop-sign."

My head almost exploded. Why in the world would I blow a stop-sign in front of two cops?? I asked him that very question and he just glared and wrote the ticket.

I contested the ticket, and the cop never showed, so it was dismissed. :shrug:

[rug]

11. I lost respect for the police in 1968.

[Sal Minella]

14. ?Chicago?

[rug]

15. Chi, NY, DC . . .

[sweetheart]

12. Pinhole camera technology could change the world

Its too bad you did not have a cop-cam mounted discretely inside your rear-view mirror,
that the video you could submit in court to show the cops are liars and have them fired.

Combined with a GPS track record, the odd thing, the spooky thing, is that we're very set up,
with GPS on cars, for cops to stop pulling people over altogether, and instead simply using
the GPS transmitters to post speeding tickets to the owners of cars they see from their GPS database.

I'm suprised the ACLU has not found a way to offer people who systemically have police abuse, discrete
remote recording cameras that can be used to capture evidence of criminal police for admission as evidence.
I hope some smart techie helps people out in this way... cases like yours are too, way too common.

I once got arrested for failing to appear at a speeding ticket trial, my car would not start, and my
ride left me high and dry (before cell phones). The cop drove me to the jail/courthouse, and i watched
his speed-radar clocking the trees along the road as we drove from the back seat. He clocked a tree at
exactly where i was pulled over at 57mph, when my speeding ticket was for 45mph in that same place.

So the police were committing a greater crime in their treatment of the crime, than the crime.
It is the way of the police state, like in iraq, the occupation troops are the problem,
people are self governing without police.

[cosmicone]

16. No grounds for appeal

You should have objected to this second officer's testimony in its entirety and moved to strike it from the record because he was not there!

If the judge had not sustained that motion, you would have grounds for appeal. Now you are out of luck.

[undeterred]

19. He testified that he was there

and all I could say is I certainly don't remember you being the one who came up to my vehicle.

He said, she said kind of thing.

[byronius]

17. I think they're just like the general population.

Half and half? Sixty-fourty? Fourty-sixty? One way of the other, some are good public servants, some are robotic damage-machines -- just like us. They come from us.

My solution: More pay, better psych evaluation, better people, more women.

That's a sexist last statement, but supported by research.

[undeterred]

18. But they have more power to abuse than the general population.

[byronius]

20. Oh, yeah.

[BlooInBloo]

21. LOLOL!! Losing respect for cops because of a traffic ticket! Gotta love white folks!!!

:rofl:

[undeterred]

22. I didn't mention race anywhere in this post.

[BlooInBloo]

23. True.

[Sal Minella]

30. I've never been pulled over for driving while white.

[midnight]

24. Undeterred what city did this happen in?

I'm so sorry that the experience has left you with no trust for the police. Once I passed a cop in Milwaukee during a period where they were writing tickets for people with license plate stickers missing. When I was pulled over the cop insisted that mine was not up to date and after a very lengthy delay the cop wrote a ticket. I get home and he calls me and tells me about the mistake, and asks if he can come and get the ticket. I say no, I will mail it to him. He insists that he is going to come and get the ticket, and does. How's that for a weirdo cop?

[undeterred]

25. Beloit

As I'm trying to figure this out- it seems like the most likely explanation is that there were two cops sitting at an intersection playing with the radar gun, taking turns writing tickets and they mixed me up with another one.

I'm sure which street I was on, that there was no cop behind me, and that the cop who testified did not come up to my car. He described it as a 2 door sedan, which its not.

I'm paying for someone elses ticket.

[midnight]

29. Sorry deterred. That kind of policing is a scam.

This should be exposed and taken though the courts.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

26. Either Way You Were Speeding, No Matter What. All You Should've Done Is Talked To The Prosecutor,

asked that it be reduced to a 1-14 mph ticket (which they would generally do for you with no problem whatsoever), and then pleaded guilty.

[lynne]

27. Actually, you were speeding in greater excess than the ticket showed -

- and they would have fined you more if then had shown the area as 25 mph in lieu of 35 limit.

[undeterred]

28. ???????????