Well, I was sitting at the intersection of US131 and Shaver Rd. at a red light facing North on US131.  The officer was the third car in front of me as we head North.  I set my cruise control at 73 as I follow him and the two cars between us.  My vehicle speeds up, but only about 1mph because the cruise control was applied.  My speedometer reads 74, boarderline 75.  The cars are all traveling in the left lane and I get close to the car in front of me, causing me to enter the right lane.  After about 6 miles(according to mapquest.com) my rear bumper is now even with the officer's front bumper.  He speeds up a touch to  go the same speed as me, then pulls me over.

I BEARLY got passed him, maybe I was traveling 1-2mph faster than him.  It just took a long time to get by.

He walks up to my car and says, "Speed limit not fast enough for you today?  I'm gonna right you a speeding ticket, license and registration please.  Its not smart to pass a fully marked police car like that."

After he writes the ticket for 75 I ask him what speed he and the cars following him were traveling.  He said 70.  Now there was no way I was going 5 mph faster than him and those cars.  Maybe my speedometer displays speeds faster than what I am really travelling.  If he was going 70 and I was going 72, I don't see much cause in giving me a ticket for 2 over.

I am fighting the ticket now because:
1.)  the officer slightly sped up to me, before pulling me over which leads me to believe that he used his car's speedometer rather than his radar gun to determine my speed.
2.) I hope he doesn't show up.


Any other tips on fighting the ticket would be very helpful.

If the cop does show up, punch him in the face.

patrick, i have gotten the points not added to my licence TWICE... i have challenged tickets, twice. just by showing up and challenging the ticket, you are better off than taking it up the pooper. When challenging your not up on the dang bench pleading your case, you go in a seperate room with the judge and you talk to him about it.

so yea you dont ALWAYS get points on your licence, just be honest and dont be a douche to the judge, theyve heard it all.

I agree with Briney, fight the ticket.  However, this comes with two caveats..

1)  Police car speedometers are certified, just like radar guns.  It is perfectly acceptable for a police officer to "match speed" with you and write a ticket based on his speedometer.  His speed is also recorded on his dashcam for that extra degree of verification.

2)  Although it is highly unlikely, the judge can tack on court costs to your ticket.  These typically run from $75 to $250.  That would make an expensive ticket even more expensive.

3)  If I was a police officer that was driving the speed limit and someone passed me, I'd probably give them a ticket, too.

-b0b
(...suggests taking this with a grain of salt.)

Wow, you learn something new every day!

-b0b
(...w00t!)

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The only ones they have to calibrate are the shoulder mounted ones that officers use for out of car speed "traps".  The dashboard ones need to be calibrated but only as required by state law (I think every 6 months).  You can ask for, although the officer will probably already provide to the court evidence of, calibration of the speedometer.  Yet I think they services the vehicles every 6 months anyways.  If he wasn't wearing his hat you could say that the officer wasn't in complete uniform.  That actually happend to a few cases I know about.  The judge let the person off because the officer didn't wear his hat. Lol.

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You are correct that passing patrol car isn't illegal.  Yet the officer did that to remind HIM of who you were.  State police pull over a lot of people, shoot any officer pulls over a lot of people.  Court times can be anytime from a day to a week away.  That means a lot more stops and incident in between.  It's like asking a fast food worker about a specific order a week ago.  That note makes it easier for them to remember.  Although it's best not to tell the officer if you're going to fight it or not, or give the presence of you will likely fight it.  Cause if they feel you will, they will make scrupulous (he he great word) notes of the back of their carbon copy.  If the officer doesn't have a dashboard cam (state officers don't) then he can't use that to refresh his memory.  So if he can't remember the details, you'll probably win.

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I highly doubt the judge will throw out your ticket because you were 2 MPH over the speed limit.  That judge you will see is handling all cases of those fighting speeding tickets that day and he can be in a good mood...or a bad mood.  Usually the judge will carry the penalty because he doesn't want to be known by the officers as throwing out their tickets (which looks bad for officers when their COs look at their record).  This is all part of a theory called the courtroom workgroup that is pretty interesting but doesn't help you too much right there.

It's true that speeding tickets for 5 MPH are rare.  Usually the policy is 6 over and with state on I-94 and most of the time on 131 it's 80-90 MPH (80 if it's a slow day).  Yet you have to think...the speed LIMIT...is the LIMIT of what SPEED you can legally drive.  Therefore even if you were over 0.00000001 MPH you'd still be driving illegally.  I just think the cop had a superiority complex and didn't like you passing him as a person of authority that "you must respect".

X
(Ya got $40,000 education!!!)

So give us the full story of your fight Briney!

X

No offense, but that's pretty thin, and making a statement about the officer's hat (or the lack thereof) would probably only serve to draw the judge's ire.

-b0b
(...could be wrong, of course.)