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mattyr33

Speeding ticket

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BTW: There are divisions of every police force solely to give tickets. Usually called Highway Patrol.

Go up to a highway patrol officer and tell him his job is only to write tickets.

You're a fucking joke dude. You seem to be the most opinionated person with the least amount of clues.

Boo-hoo. I can't go as fast as I want. Boo-hoo, the cops made a simple error and wrote my name wrong, I shouldn't have to pay the fine for speeding. Boo-hoo.

Maybe one day, speed limits will change in specific states due to state supreme court cases.

Looks like my reading comprehension was just fine. Jackass. Maybe you should learn how to make a valid argument.

I don't even care about the warning, fighting everything and trying to get away on a technicality is not being "American" or any such bullshit. You're being a greedy bitch who cares more about what it costs and what it means to you than anything else. If you're confused about speed limits then don't break them. I don't give a rat's ass about NYC being 50 and everyone going 70.

Police officers' primary job is to keep your dumb ass safe. If you're driving excessively fast or slow for the conditions and they get you you still might not get a ticket. They're not out to get you, they're out to enforce laws and keep the public safe.

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Obviously there are no police officers whose sole duty it is to go on traffic details. With the exception of meter maids, who are usually not allowed to carry fire arms, make arrests, or do anything outside of writing parking tickets. That said, if you look at resource usage for police at the state and local level (obviously the FBI, SS, ATF, or US Marshalls don't write traffic tickets) the use of man hours in traffic enforcement is significantly higher than in other areas. You could make the argument that virtually everyone drives and therefore the greater police usage is needed. Of course, issuing traffic fines makes the state money. Whereas crime prevention patrols do not. It would be perfectly valid to say that an increase in crime prevention patrols would probably have a greater positive impact on a community's well being than traffic enforcement actions. It would also be valid to say that practices like per officer quotas on fine income for the state have cast traffic enforcement actions in a suspect light by the population at large. While some police departments have actually done away with these practices, many more merely chosen to call them something else. Instead of having dollar quotas per officer they'll have a set number of "contacts" an officer is supposed to have in a given period of time. These sorts of things have cast doubts on where legit policing of traffic ends and where state profiteering begins.

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RecLeague- that is true, the system of quotas or what it has evolved into has seriously hurt the image of the intent of a police officer's job, but don't think that traffic enforcement and crime prevention can't be intermingled. Leading causes of injury and property damage occur with vehicles. If the officers weren't on the streets and highways in the first place the response time to any call would be astronomically higher.

The fact of the matter is that an abundantly high percentage of Americans are terrible drivers or have no sort of respect for traffic laws. If you take away the fear of getting a ticket or arrested for breaking traffic laws everyone will go as fast as they want, blow through stop signs and red lights, pass in no passing zones, not yield for school buses, etc.

If no one broke the laws and police/cities didn't make any money from tickets I don't think they'd start lowering the speed limits or imposing restrictions just to catch people as Mafia Line may think, but rather it would reflect that the community is well behaved and more likely to need less of a police force.

I'll use my town as an example. We have one unit, possibly two on patrol for the campus and neighborhoods that are university contracted state troopers. We have one or two additional city units to police the highway and backroads, and county sheriffs that do their thing. So on any given night we have potentially 2 cars covering a city of 10,000 people. But we also have next to zero crime. The speed limits are 55 (as they are on every road in this part of the state) out of town, 45 on the 4 lane in town and 35 through town, but I see people stopped every day. Is it that the cops need to stop anyone and just be dicks to someone going 37 in a 35? No, it's because everywhere you go there are idiots who think going 50 in a 35 is just fine or excusable, or they're late, or they have the general American "everything I want right now!" attitude and can't be subject to some un-American 35mph limit.

Talk to a cop and ask him what his least favorite part of the job was. I'll bet after paperwork traffic enforcement is right up there. But you know what else? Sitting on a street corner watching cars has also been key in capturing wanted felons, stolen vehicles, and untold amount of other crimes.

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Clearly reading isn't your strong suit, because I said, technically, fighting a law you disagree with is the best way to change a law. I understand that a speeding case will not make it the supreme court and I believe I also said that too.

My basic argument is:

A) Speed limits should be FAIR and then policed strictly. Not 90+ but not 55 either.

B) Until speed limits are fair I will fight, and encourage others to fight their speeding tickets even if they are "guilty".

Most importantly, you fight a ticket with legally sufficient arguments and not by telling the judge some sob story that everyone knows is horseshit, that even if were true, would not legally get you out of speeding. You fight a ticket by questioning the officer in the hopes that he took poor notes and forgot aspects that prove your guilt, you question his training with a radar gun, so on so forth.

BTW: There are divisions of every police force solely to give tickets. Usually called Highway Patrol.

Please help me understand how fighting a ticket by questioning the officer, etc. helps fix your basic argument of unfair speed limits? This doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't you work through the legislature process to change the law?

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One important thing to remember, speeding defenses vary GREATLY from state to state. In many states, you have little to no hope, but in several others, you might have a good chance. E.g., Florida and Georgia. In Florida, a ticket is a ticket, very little you can do, however one of my prior professors, who practiced civil for quite some time, said the number of defenses and success rate in Georgia was really surprising. Take that for what it's worth.

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I didn't read all the posts (i'm lazy), so forgive me if I'm going over stuff from the past:

In response to the original poster, I'd offer this advice *Note* I'm from upstate NY:

1) Show up to court on the appearance date. If you plead guilty by mail, you are opening yourself up to the full punishment by law which will be extremely harmful to your record, insurance, wallet.

2) Don't hire a lawyer. It's your first offense. You're not at risk for any suspensions at 12mph over, and you have no points that will put you into harms way with a suspension.

3) When you appear, there will most likely be three options:

a)Plead Guilty (you will lose)

b)Plead Not Guilty, and schedule a trial date (you will lose)

c)Speak with the Town Prosecutor. Choose this option. They will have a copy of the ticket, your record etc. Apologize for speeding, and most likely, they will give you an ACOD. You'll have to take a defensive driving class, which will also lower your insurance, a parking on the pavement fine, and if you stay clean for 6 months, the speeding charge disappears. What does go on your record is the reduced charge of the parking on the pavement, because you do ultimately plead guilty to that.

hope that helps

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