Streetlights, radars and cops

Hmmmm. Haven't noticed.

But I DID notice myself getting a fricken speeding ticket this morning for 10 over. First one in years. The prick. Unmarked car. Pulling laser. Speed had just dropped from 30 to 25 about 40 yards before and I was still doing 35.

I saw him shooting me and then saw him frantically putting the "gun" down as I was approaching. I was about 20 feet past him before I came to my complete stop before he even had a chance to pull out. I was stopped and waiting for him. He pulled and pulled behind me and parked and THEN put his lights on.

I thought my attentive driving amd courtesy would get me out of the ticket.....Nope. ;-)

Damnit.

 

Bill,
Hate to say it, but in general, in my experience Wisconsin cops are pretty F**ked up. This is a bit long, but it was a lot longer on the side of the road.

One time I was heading south on 94, almost to the IL line. It was about 7:00 pm and was raining moderately. There was a group of cars that had just passed me, then I moved into the left lane to pass a slower car. I was going about 70-75 and I saw in the mirror, a car approaching at a speed noticeably higher than mine. I sped up a bit to get clear of the car in the lane to the right and moved over to let the approaching car get past. The faster car then moves into my lane right on my ass and turns on the lights. An unmarked car!!!

I pulled off to the center median, when the female cop came to the window, I asked why I was being pulled over. She responded that, I was speeding at 85MPH!!! I honestly never got close to 85, so I asked if she had that speed registered on radar or??, she said no. I asked if she was clocking traffic from the shoulder, she said no. She said that she had paced me with her speedo.

She was never behind me for any length of time and was never matching my speed. I said that I did speed up to allow me to move over and let a fast approaching car (her) pass.

I asked if she was on the way to some emergency situatution that had required her to be going 90+ mph, she said no. I asked why she was going that fast, she said it was not my concern.

I mentioned that it may not be legal for her to be writing tickets in a situation such as this, to which she replied,"Tell it to the judge."

I was getting a bit pissed off about all of this, so when she asked if I wanted to post a bond I said yes. She told me the price, which was $50 IIRC. So I started to gather the money to give to her, from under seats and carpeting, glove box, etc.

Remember that it is raining, and it is raining harder by the moment.

She was being sprayed by the wet road slime being propelled by the passing cars and trucks. When she asked, I told her that I did have a charge card, which she repeatedly told me she could accept, and I responded tht I did not want to use the card for this purpose.

I continued searching the car for loose change (even though I had enough paper money in my pocket) and she was getting quite p*ssed off, telling me that she would have to take me to the station. Evey time I found a bit of money, I counted the total again.

My girlfriend of the time was getting a little scared about all of this, seeing how frantic the officer was getting. In fact, just before I completed getting all of the cash together, she pulled her gun out of the holster and said she was arresting me!!!

I gave the slime covered drowned rat of a cop the money, she went back to her car and wrote the receipt. She came back, gave me the paperwork and said that we could go.

Just to be a prick, I then told her that besides the credit card, I had about $500.00 in paper money in my pocket and just because she was being such a bi*ch, I kept her there in the spray.

I felt so good making her day just a bit brighter, it was worth every cent.

Bill

 

Good job stickin' it to her..
Sounds like someone was on a power-trip.


Thanks.
Vince

 

Sean,
Did it actually have anything to do with the streetlight? Sometimes HID streetlights do get hot and shut down because of a thermal limit switch.

Did you have a detector? Did it go off when passing the light?

How much did you exceed the limit by and did he show you the speed on his radar?

Bill

 

Did you get out of the ticket?

 

And you wonder why you got the ticket!!!! HHHMMMMMMMMMM

 

If you are asking me, I did not contest it in court.

I have always had a good driving record, in spite of my exhuberant driving style.

One time I got chased fot 40 miles by the FLA police, they blocked off 7 mile bridge to stop me and I didn't get a ticket.

 

To whom do you refer?

 

Forum member "285ferrari" is a cop, so I presume he was referring to everyone.

From observing the actions of traffic cops, they sure seem to act like a hall monitor from high school, and love to leverage their "powers" and tell people they can't do this, can't do that, or whatever, give a ticket, and then either lie about it, or go speeding off breaking the rules themselves.

It seems like it's perfectly OK for someone in their SUV to be yawking on the cell phone, weave all the place, or blocking the left lane, but if you pass them in a small burst of speed to put the errant driver behind you.... you get the ticket for speeding or wreckless driving, or whatever charges the cop dreams up so he looks good in front of his station house boss.

 

Screentime,

That is a VERY interesting observation on your part. I have heard that some systems were being tested that would monitor traffic speed, and if excessive speed was detected, it would automatically turn the light to RED at the next intersection. This it the government's way of controlling speed, but I am sure it will pizz everyone off, and of course will waste much gasoline in the starting and stopping process. I wonder much $$$$ the government is spending (wasting) on these systems. Perhaps the technology they are deploying is a variant of LIDAR, and as a result will not trigger your radar detector.

If you can, continue to monitor the situation and report on your observations, as this may be a "trial" system waiting for mass deployment. If indeed this is the case, then the cops must have device to trigger the up-coming stop light to turn to Green so they can proceed to a real emergency. The next phase to this system would be adding cameras, so you would now be get a speeding ticket in the mail for 5 mph over the limit. If so, this is called the LOOTING of America.

 

Here we go again--Let the cop bashing begin!!!! Another who has never walked those shoes and knows all about what we do and how we do it!!! Until YOU have looked at a 357 pointed at your head or almost been run over by some jackass while your helping a citizen push his broke down car off the road---DON'T BASH!!!! Better yet when your house get's broke into or you get car jacked--don't call the hall monitor handle it yourself!!

 

Does anyone know if the city installed a Speeding Camera on the Kennedy heading North a few miles before the 90/94 Junction?

In that section where the road opens up to a large 6 lane "S" bend.

I was heading home late last week, going 'over the limit'.. I was in the far Left lane, and as usual, when I come up to that large 6 lane "S" bend, I keep the car heading straight and cut over the entire 6 lanes until I am in the far Right lane. (obviously when there are no cars on the road)

Anyways, as I was midway through the lanes, a HUGE flash lit up the entire inside of my car.. Which immediately made me think about Phoenix, and how almost every street light has Camera's with Bright flashes at night when you speed through a Red light.

No Idea if this was a Speeding Camera.. Other Potential factors. The Train threw a HUGE Spark (happens all the time), or Someone pissed off just behind me Flashed me with his brights.

I guess I'll know in a couple weeks if I get a ticket in the Mail.

 

Mike,
I am sorry if you feel that I was bashing cops in general. I have a number of close friends that are cops and have a lot of respect for them and their job. That does NOT mean that all cops are faultless. That does NOT mean that they should feel free to abuse the powers that are entrusted to them.

The cop in question, in the Wisconsin incident I referred to, came up on my car's tail, in a large Olds, closing at a high rate of speed to about 3 feet from the back of my '66 MG. The speed limit was 70mph at the time, I was going 70 to 75 while passing and she writes me a ticket for getting out of her way. She should have been writing herself a ticket for going 90+, without good reason. She admitted that I did not pass her, so that she might have been able to visually ascertain that I might have been speeding, she caught up with me. If she had a good reason, it would have been infinitely more important than stopping to write me a fictitious ticket.

I was not carrying "heat", I was not exceeding the nominal speed limit, I was not threatening the public safety, she was doing all of these, at the highest level of irresponsibility, I will add.

I was conversationally polite and courteous at all times. She was rude and abusive. Which is why she got the passive-agressive response from me.

I have an A class CDL, with all endorsements except for busses, with a spotless record, not even any DOT equipment citations. My license was without blemish at the time of this incident also.

If you want to defend her actions, I would say, it's a case misplaced loyalty.

Regards,
Bill

 

I have had the worst luck with cops , Ever since I was 18 and had my frist Porsche , But the worst is going into Wisconsine from Ill , I live right on the border by 94 , Ever time I go ther in my Porsche of Ferrari I get a ticket , And the cops are the biggest dick heads Ive ever seen (not sure I can say that here ) I do belive in little man sindrome , Ever cop Ive ever met has had this .
I got my a** kicked in high school so now Iam going to make an example .
And If my house does get broken in to Iam not calling the cops , I have more respect for the criminals then the cops , at least the cops around here .The few times I have had to call the cops it was a big mistake ,everyone is a criminal to them . When I 20 I was driving down Lewis and a RX7 with two kids in it went under a bus that waspulling out and got both ther heads cut off ,when I stopped to see if ther was anything I could do the cops tried to arrest me Because I was driving a Porsche and must have been racing these morons .
Which I was not , I was about a quater mile back .
I do like Bills story Thou , I think IAm going to stock up on change .

Bill.

 

HAs anyone noticed this yet , When I go down 294 and come up on one of those generator driven white blinking road construction signs my radar detector goes off . Is ther a radar in there , Ive been wanting to pull over and check one out but havent found one without a lot of traffic around it .

 

I think they have radar transmitters in them, not speed detecting devices. They just flood the whole area with stray RF and set off the radar detectors to slow down the drivers that have them.

Sort of like when they parked the squad cars on the side of the road with inflatable dummies in them.

 

In your case I agree with you 100%---that was uncalled for!!!

 

Mike,
Thank you sir, I am glad that you were not offended by my comments.


Regards,
Bill

 

I think hidden radar enforcement and mechanical ticket-generating cameras erode citizen's respect for the law. It seems I remember police being more friendly and helpful in the past. For example, when I was a teenager, if you were found with an open six pack in the car cruising with your buds, chances are they would make you pour out the beer, give you a lecture, maybe a small ticket, and send you along.

I think peeps feel now that if a similar thing happened, the driver would be arrested, the car towed (possibly seized and sold at auction), and the parents would be called (and subsequently arrested). An investigation would be launched, and if they could determine where the beer was purchased, the liquor license would be pulled and the sales clerk arrested. The driver would be then forced to take an alcoholic counseling class, or be subject to whatever "thought adjustment" those in power deemed necessary. Have things changed that much to make this sort of thing necessary?

Take a look when they show foreign stuff on some of those reality cop shows. Foreign police, some not even armed with guns, pronounce the suspect under arrest, take him/her by the arm and off to the jail. When they show U.S. stuff - the suspect is always thrown to the ground, yelled at like an animal, someone's foot on his throat, and a shotgun at his head.

Much too much gotcha stuff going on today. That and those dumb slogans:

"You drink, you drive you lose", "Click-it or Ticket", etc. Very annoying.

Also, I go to court all the time and have friends who are prosecutors and public defenders, who all tell me that police lie in court cases. That's unacceptable. I hope it happens way less frequently than they indicate.

 

I do agee with a lot of what you say. I do not think that automated photographic radar is even legal. When reviewing landmark radar speed enforcement cases, well at least the last time I looked, there was a legal requirement that an officer visually determine that a car was exceeding the speed limit and only then use radar to confirm and quantify the speed. The human visual component was legally required.

Radar is not infallible and the operators of the radar guns have usually only had 15 to 20 minutes of training, provided gratis by the manufacturer's sales people. These are the same people that will swear that their unit is, without question, infillable (they are sales people by trade, after all). They don't bother to share any information on wave propogation and that at a distance of 150 feet the radar beam width is over 75 feet, enough to pickup every vehicle on a four lane divided roadway. The officer has been led to believe that the "sights" on the radar gun are as accurately indicative of target, as his Glock. How can anyone determine absolutely which car's speed was being displayed on the gun, when there are 15 to 20 possibilities? The radar does not pick out the fastest and it does not pick up the front vehicles exclusively, it picks up the strongest signal returned. If there is a semi within 1/4 mile, the gun will pick it up and reject the signals from the 12 cars in front of the truck. It will pick up the Caddy behind the Lotus.

I once talked to an officer that thought his radar gun could shoot through steel reinforced concrete and 3 high stacked steel guard rails, to monitor traffic on the other side of the highway. On the day he was in that location, he was probably writing tickets to a lot of innocent people, while he was actually picking up vehicles on his own side of the road.

Seizing property is, in my opinion, only acceptable in cases where the prosecution proves that the property was obtained with illegal gains. Unreasonable seizure was part of the reason that people emigrated to the New World.

The cops show, seem to me to be propaganda, making the populous think that brutality and violation of a suspect's rights is OK.

Yes, there are real criminals out there, really bad people and I wish it wasn't so. Cops have to deal with an overfull plate of it all, I do not envy their job, and I am grateful there is somebody to do the job.

I do not wish any misfortune on the good peace officers, but there are "hot dogs" out there too. Cops are people, people have faults and issues, nobody's perfect.... and surely not me.

How's that for a meandering rant?

Bill

 

Officers in our department receive 24 hours of classroom and 16 hrs of field traing==40 hours total to become radar/laser certified. That is a MPTC requirement in MD.

 

My problem with camera tickets is the 6th amendment right to confront witnesses. How do you cross-examine a machine?

I was in one of those tollway violation hearings a couple weeks ago and when one of the "violators" questioned whether the machine might have malfunctioned, the smug state's witness replied that the machine would have detected any malfunction, and never issued the ticket in the first place. How do you argue with stupidity like that?

BTW, they toss out any tickets where your window is open - I guess as "proof" that you threw the coins in. How that counting malfunction might have escaped the self-correcting and detecting algorithm remains a mystery I guess. So, if you have no coins do the air throw.

 

Haha....I've seen the wad ....To let everyone on this site know....Never never never ever speed, have a light out, oh what the hell... just ever goto ROCKTON,IL (near blackhawk farms racetrack) Everyone from around this area knows to stay away...It is like something out of a movie there! I once had a cop drive, what had to have been 70+mph at night in the rain through a tiny residential road...with every light turned off, when he got behind be turned them on, just to **** with me(I wanted to call someone about that one, but who? state representative? Illinois chief of police? F-it). They will wait outside of bars and pull you over. They will tailgate you to try and make you speed up or make one false F*ckin move! Stay away

Once though, I drove from Rockford to Rockton going ~120mph the whole way at about 1am. Got to Rockton and slowed to around ~90mph....Saw what I thought were flashing lights in my mirrors, as I crested a hill....My first reaction was a bad one. I floored it past 120 and decided for a bit I was running...but my sense told me better and I pulled over...It was a good thing...within less then a minute I was surrounded by 6 cop cars. It was the strangest thing...The people I had become to hate, held my fate in their hands....I blew a .03... which to this day, I believe the officer(who I was shooting the **** with talking about cars) released the breathalyzer almost instantly when I blew.... I was by no means drunk, but believe I should have blown over a .08 and been in jail...I didn't recieve reckless driving or anything...And about 5 minutes later as I was doing some "tests", my friend drives by, who couldn't "keep up"......I just had to laugh
I can post the ticket someday.

"rader 90+mph"
"speedometer 120mph couldn't catch"

Went to court and recieved a nice little $400 ticket

It was a stupid thing to do....not the speeding, but the few drinks before hand....