XFactor95SupraT "LOOOONG. My racing history, and how to get out of tickets! USEFUL!"
05-03-2005
#1
Registered!!
Thread Starter
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Reppin' the 401
Age: 37
Posts: 741
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Rep Power: 241 
XFactor95SupraT "LOOOONG. My racing history, and how to get out of tickets! USEFUL!"
This was originally, and still is posted as a sticky on www.newcelica.org under racing stories...
SO THIS STORY IS SIMPLY A REPOST NOT MINE...from XFactor95SupraT
LOOOONG. My racing history, and how to get out of tickets! USEFUL!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: If you want to scroll through my story, and onto how to fight your tickets, scroll down to the line with all ****'s
Read something else if you don't want another 95SupraTT Original novel. Cliff notes will be available for $.95 soon.
Ok, so as most of you know, I OWN, but no longer drive (legally) a 1995 Super White Toyota Supra TT. It's targa top, 6speed with black leather all around. It has the premium sound system with sub, and every other option except one...heated seats (grumble)
Anyway, so I got this car in August after I turned 18 in June as a present to myself for my second year of surviving the metaphorical Corporate buttfuking, as well as being an adult. The dream was to own it before I turned 18 (June 13th) but I had problems getting insurance during that period of time, so I had to delay the car slightly.
ANYWAY, as with most Supercar owners, I began to learn of the wonderful world of streetracing. I did a lot of research on cars before deciding which to buy, but I never had any idea how much street credit this car had. Everywhere I went people were asking me all kinds of questions about the car and where I raced, that I quite frankly, didn't have an answer to. So I began to learn as much about the car as I could.
One day I learned about the local street racing scene and found that they meet at In & Out (what a novel idea) on Saturday nights at around 10pm.
So for the next week I did nothing but drive, and drive and drive and drive and DRIVE. I practiced shifting, launching, did research etc. Sometimes I would just drive to LA at 1-4am for no reason other than I was bored and wanted to drive my car. After I felt I knew my car relatively well, I decided to check out street racing.
So I roll towards In & Out expecting to see a bunch of Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes, maybe an RX-7, VR-4, 6speed SS's, etc. But instead as I roll in I find a crowd of little ricer punks (don't get all butt hurt yet) with Eclipses, Civics, Integras, Escorts, etc. with nothing but stickers and body kits. So I roll bye trying to find a good spot to park thats not near a bunch of other cars (I don't even know these guys yet). As I roll through the parking lot everyone's jaw drops and necks nearly break. Remember, this is Santa Barbara, while it may not be rare for a Supra to roll out to an LA street race or other big city scene, most all nice cars in this area are owned by successful, rich, older guys, not 18 year olds who were lucky enough to land a good job. In short, you don't see cars like this in our little scene.
Anyway, I wasn't sure if I should be scared sh!tless or feel proud, but one thing was for sure, I had the attention of everyone within site of my car. So I got out, and walked towards some people. As I got close I realized how many of these guys I actually knew. Over half of them were from my old highschool, and many others I just knew through parties and other friends. Some people ask me what I have done to my car and I tell them its all stock, because I don't know that much about cars yet. I guess I was putting out a vibe that I couldn't drive for **** just because I didn't know cars.
So anyway, before I am there for 3minutes, this kid I saw earlier in a tricked out Civic walks up to me and asks me if I want to race. I tell him sure, I guess he thought that I would be an easy kill, not knowing how to drive my car. I ask him what his car has (like I would even know what he was talking about) and he tells me GSR motor swap, intake, exhaust, headers, chip, and a slightly built engine with a 100shot of Nitrous. Seeing as how I'm not from the car crowd, when you hear the mention of the notorious "NOS" you think it's automatically some kind of super fast racecar.
So we go over to the local spot, and I line up with him, and turn off traction control. There is this other area in an old Swap Meet parking lot where people can be spectators from the other side of a fense (we just come to a full stop about an 1/8th of a mile from that fense on a local highway, so they can see the race from the 1/2way point) Some car pulls up behind us (remember this is my first time racing) and almost hits both the Civic and my Supra. The Civic turns his lights off then back on. I'm sitting there looking at the car in my rearview wondering what the hell is going on (I was too stupid to ask questions back at In & Out). The guy behind us starts flashing his god damn high beams at us. I'm wondering what the hell is going on, maybe there is a Cop coming or something. So while I'm turned around in my seat wondering who this @sshole is, the Civic takes off.
By the time my dumbass turns around, the Civic is ahead like 10 cars, and I realize the guy behind us was signaling when to start the race. So I ease the clutch out with a few wheel hops, I'm glued to the back of my seat. I start pulling the Civic in almost immediately despite his 40mph+ starting on me, and nitrous. I bring it up to 7200RPM's, slam 2nd, and start burning out all over the place, I ease off a little just as I begin to fishtail, and get traction again. I keep the pedal to the metal (or hollow carpet fibers in this case), and sink back into the seat. I bring it up to 7200RPM's again, and carefully slam 3rd. I get only a little chirp this time as I was a little more careful. Just as we are passing the 1/8mile, I FLY by the Civic like it was standing still (yeah I know its just a Civic, but this was my first race). When that happened right in front of all those people, I immediately understood what street racing was all about...the rush.
I kept it floored LONG after the 1/4 just to be "safe", and by the time I put on the brakes, I had already hit fuel cut as I was doing 155 (this was before I knew about removing the traction control fuse to acheive 175)
I headed back to In & Out, and had to wait quite some time for everyone to get back. When people started coming back out, apparently I found out they all thought I had just given the Civic a 10 car handicap. It seemed like a better story to me than "I was actually trying to figure out why the *** the guy behind us was blinking his highbeams at me." So I neither confirmed, nor denied the story, and let them all go right on thinking whatever they wanted to. The guy with the Civic didn't even show up again...I guess he thought I was just trying to make a joke of him or something.
So the night goes on, I meet a bunch of new people, learn a bunch of new things, and had a lot of fun. Word starts going around that they were all headed out to LA to go do a cruise, and then hit up someone's cousin's bach party. This guy comes up and starts talking to me about my car. Somewhere along the line we get to talking about the Civic race, and I guess my pride was showing a little more than I had thought. He tells me "You know, it was only a Civic dude."
A few minutes later, and right before we were all about to leave, we hear this rumble from freeway exit. A minute or two later, this SHOWROOM shined White El Camino comes rolling up into the parking lot with a BIG *** BLOWER sticking up out of the hood. I never liked El Caminos much, but I started out as a Muscle Car ****...I thought they were unbeatable, Godlike, etc. One thing was for damn sure, I was NOT going to *** with this car, the bark was so intimidating, you didn't even WANT to feel what the bite was like. Everyone was joking the car as it rolled around, I heard people saying stuff like "damn I bet that car runs 9's" etc.
He circles the parking lot a few times, and this kid Andrew with one of the Jackson Racing Supercharged Type R's in town, says "I think he wants to call someone out". Being an novice I guess didn't really matter to anyone, because everyone looked at me, including the guy in the El Camino with this huge **** eating grin on his face. I was slowly realizing that beating a little engine swaped and NOS'd Civic wasn't going to get me any respect with this crowd, and I better represent the Supra name. So I announce "*** it, I'll race him for ***** and giggles, just to see how well I can keep up."
I ignore the top, and just jump in my car. This time, not just a few people get into their cars, there was a flock of people getting into their cars. Every single person who was there for the meet got in their car and followed.
We got back over to the spot, there were a few more people behind us than I would have liked, but most everyone headed to the parking lot on the other side of the highway. As we line up I realize my hands are shaking. I hold the clutch down and feel my knee bouncing up and down like I was giving a little cousin a "horsie ride".
This time the guy yells over to me "How do you want to do this?" I yell back "You got horn loud enough to hear over that beast?" He reply's "WHAT?" I say "DO YOU HAVE A HORN" he nods and I just say "HONK THREE TIMES, WE'LL GO ON THREE" he nods and rolls his window back up. At this time I struggling to keep my cool, because I was practically flipping out looking at that fuking blower.
He honks once, twice, and right as I hear the third honk begin I hear his tires chirp and I was already easing my foot off the clutch. We both got off the line about the same time and to my amazement he didn't have any traction problems. I slowly eased ahead in 1st about half a car by the end, trying to keep my cool and not let my half car length go to my head I slam second with a little chirp, I've pulled ahead about two full cars by the time I nail 3rd, we go sailing by the watchers and I'm about three cars ahead. I just kept right on going just like I did last time not knowing where the 1/4 ended. So again, I hit fuel cut at like 153-156.
I know that car should have taken me out, but I didn't give a rat's ***. I know blowers can act up, and he probably wasn't boosting much, but I was happy as hell. My "sh!tty import" blew the doors off a big bad muscle classic. Twice the displacement, constant forced induction, and taken out by a little old 182CI took out a big bad 350 (at least) and from the sound of it a 454. And I thought I was gonna lose, which made it even better.
Anyway, when I got to the exit for In & Out, I turned the opposite direction to give people a chance to get back. I went over to this gas station on the other side of the freeway, and go my car washed and waxed real quick. Before I pulled out, I got one of my girlfriend's greatest hits of the 70's and 80's CD's out. I popped it into the CD player, and put it on Queen's "Another one bites the dust". I splashed some (ROFL) Fuji spring water in my hair cause I love the cool feeling that it gives with the targa off. I headed back towards In & Out with a REALLY big head, and nicely stroked ego. Just before I got to the entrance for the parking lot, I fast forwarded it to the **DUN DUN DUN** "ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST, and ANOTHER ONE GONE and ANOTHER ONE GONE, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!"
Everyone had a big smile on their face, and I knew what my sport of choice would now be. My first night out, and I had a name for myself. Immature...probably, but I felt better that night than I had in a looooong time.
Anyway, that was my first night of street racing. I won't bore you with ever other detail, but I've raced quite a few cars, and only turned down ONE race, and thats with this kid Billy with a proven 9second El Camino, and that was at Palm Dale, so I don't even wanna know what he'd run at Sea level.
I've racing everything from Z06's (the closest race I've ever had) to modified Geo Metros and Ford Festivas. I even raced some little punk on a little b!tch *** ninja on the freeway and took him out.
A few months later, I was out at State Beaches racing. I had just smoked this kid named "In" in a red Prelude with a fat turbo (only boosting 12PSi) and some NOS to help spool it. I pull back onto the dirt parking area by the shore, and just pumped some classic rock tunes (I'm sick and tired of you little b!tches and your Eminem, Backseat ***s, wannabe Thug Rap, Venga Boys, etc).
This kid comes up to me and starts talking to me. He introduces himself as Jeremy. So we're talking for a little while, and eventually he tells me he runs a little racing crew out of Oxnard. I politely take this card that he wrote his number on, and tell him I'd call him sometime to hang out or whatever. I always raced for myself, and never really wanted to be a part of some "crew" or whatever.
Anyway like a few weeks go by, and I'm doing laundry and I come across Jeremy's card. So I call him, and setup a time to meet him. He tells me I should come and hang out with the crew and meet some new friends. So I agree and I meet up with them, and that's how I met XFactor.
It only got better from there, I met RevHappyGTS, who at the time had a white GSR, and soon after bought the 2nd gen MR-2 from who now is one of the VR-4 owners. Jeremy of course was there (who you might know as XFactor VR-4) Then I met this little punk kid with a WRX and I wanted to sock him (naw just playin foo=) I got along great with everyone and they were a badass bunch of guys to chill with. Before I knew it, we were hanging out all the time, and partyin it up. The crew was running STRONG with:
My 95 Supra TT 6speed
a 93.5 Supra T-78 6speed (which has now been converted into a moveable fuct 2ton wad of metal)
a 93 RX-7
a 95 VR-4
a 91 VR-4
a Mk2 MR-2 Turbo
a 2002 IS300
an SE-R
2 GSRs (one with the JDM swap and LSD...one of RevHappy's old rides)
a Turbo Civic with NOS
etc.
Some of these cars are no longer with us, but the big boys are still around.
Anyway, so thats the jist of it. I've been getting a lot of PM's recently so I just decided to explain it to everyone.
NOW for the useful part.
************************************************** **********
************************************************** **********
************************************************** **********
Why should you trust me? Well, I've been ticketed for over $10 thousand dollars in fines through the later 2 of my 4 years driving. I've paid just under 6grand of that. Not all THAT impressive, I admit, but 4grand is 4grand. On the other hand I was stupid and paid many of these fines before I had a chance to argue them in court. I've never once developed a case, gone in front of a judge to fight a ticket, and lost. My Great Uncle whom I talk to all the time is a retired Sgt. with the St Louis PD. He's worked with Highway Patrol etc. I was a Criminal Justice major before I switched to Computer Science and then Business Administration. And last, 4 years of undefeated victories in Mock Trial and Debate (including State), plus a few little real life court hearings here and there for hell raising as a young kid have all given me a little extra knowledge as to the inner workings of the law.
First off, the most important ticket, speeding. I'll go over that first, as that is what I am most familiar with.
There are several different ways an office can give you a speeding ticket. They will undoubtedly use one of the following methods: Laser or "Lidar", Radar, Pacing, Visual Estimate &/or VASCAR.
We'll start with Radar. How radar works is when the radar device is pointed at your vehicle, it emits a radio waves on a particular frequency (I'll explain how important for you this frequency is later). These radio waves eventually travel to your vehicle, and bounce off, returning to the radar device on a different frequency. In theory, this change in frequency is directly proportional to how fast you are traveling. The radar devide merely calculates this difference, and comes up with an estimated speed. In order for the radar to work properly, it must be pointed DIRECTLY at you. There can be no obstructions in the way ie: other cars, bushes, trees, rocks etc. The device must also be relatively close to you in order to insure that it's reading your speed and not another vehicle's. Radar does not emit an even, narrow, direct beam, but instead is more like a sprinkler or headlight. It is emitted from the device, and spreads out wider and wider over a distance. It's proven that at only one eighth of a mile from the standard unit, a radar beam will be around 4 lanes wide, and sometimes wider. So if your speeding ticket is based on radar, make sure you ask the officer "How far away from me were you when you "clocked" me if you don't mind my asking?" If there was enough space, he could very well have clocked someone in a different lane, or even on the other side of the road.
In addition to all this, radar based speed reading devices have a tendancy to read speeds of bigger objects rather than smaller ones, so if there is some bigger truck near you, he may cause you to get a speeding ticket when you were only traveling the speed limit due to the fact that the radar device read the speed of the truck behind you, but the officer tickets you because you were in front. I've also read in a radar training manual (don't ask how I got it) that sometimes the radar unit can read the speed of blowing dust, branches, rain, leaves etc. So if you were ticketed under these conditions, you might have ample reason to get your ticket dismissed.
Now the how get ammo to fight the pigs. Far too many people think that if they get a radar ticket, thats means: pay, end of story. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are a vast amount of opportunities that will present themselves for you to get out of a radar ticket. First off, there are certain things that are a matter of public record and that you have a right to know and sometimes see. Radar is a VERY sensitive piece of machinery, and as such, it is VERY vulnerable to other variables causing it to be innacurate. If you can raise a reasonable doubt that any of these variables were involved with your ticket, the radar reading becomes inadmisable in court, and your case will have a VERY good chance of being dismissed.
If you get a radar ticket for exceeding a posted speed limit, make sure you find out if there has been a recent traffic and engineering survey taken on that road. Most often, they must be updated every 5 years in order to be valid. What they do is measure the speed of 85% of the traffic, and from this average, is supposed to be the basis of which speed limits are made. Often times, an officer CANNOT use radar for the purpose of ticketing people if there is not an up to date copy of the traffic and engineering survey present with him in court. Remember, the judge and the pig are friends, and they are expecting you not to know your **** when you show up in court so often times the judge will not ask the pig for this document, so its up to you to make sure you ask for it if the judge doesn't. In many places, the court will permit you to actually request the data that makes up these surveys, therefore, if your so inclined (like myself) you can often challenge the city's accuracy on the survey itself.
Most of these surveys are conducted using one of those remote radar trailers. I'm sure you've seen them around, they look like little boxes mounted onto a trailer with a little screen that shows you how fast your going. The main pain in the *** is the fact that when most people see these things they slam on their brakes because they think there is a little camera that will take a picture of their liscense plate and ticket them in the mail. This is NOT true. What IS true, is often times a pig will sit a little after one of these and radar people himself. So look around, if there are no cops, GUN IT, as soon as you pass the trailer, or it stops reading you, slam on the brakes and slow back down to the posted speed limit. You'll be doing everyone a favor.
When an officer pulls you over for speeding and he used radar to clock you, you may ask to see the reading on the unit at that time. Usually, it has been my experience that they'll allow me to look at it. If they say no, then I take note of that and will later use it as ammunition against the officer in court.
Many radar based speeding tickets are dismissed every year because the defendant may request any or all the following and does not receive them:
1. The Radar unit's calibration, maintenance, and history records.
2. The officer's certifications for radar training or other things.
3. The tuning fork(s) used to calibrate the radar unit as well as their calibration certificates.
4. The specific radar unit that was used.
5. That agency's FCC license
6. List of models, makes and serial numbers of every radar unit currently in use with that agency.
The things above are a matter of public record, which as most of us know, means that we all have a right to obtain these records to insure that a safe, fair, and truthful trial takes place. You may obtain these records one of a few different ways. The first is you may go to the officer's (who issued you the ticket) specific agency, and ask to speak with someone whom can help you with public records like the Public Records Custodian, or another officer. You give them a detailed list of what exactly it is you want. If they aren't *******s about it, they'll give you pretty much everything you asked for except probably the tuning forks and radar unit itself. They'll probably tell you that the officer will bring these with him to the trial.
If on the other hand, they ARE *******s and refuse you any of this information, you can call the State Attorney General whom is in charge of prosecuting all violations of public records laws. Mark my words, you'll get EXACTLY what you asked for in short order after notifiying the S.A.G. If you really want revenge you can even file a civil lawsuit against that agency for punitive damages.
You can also sobpoena anything reasonable you wish from the court. You may do this by requesting them at the court clerk explaining the things you want. The only catch to this is you need to do it 14days in advance, furthermore you won't get to check out the records until the actual court date, which takes valuable time from the construction of a bulletproof case. Look for any inconsistancies within whatever records you get, these leave the cop very unstable ground to testify upon.
Many times an agency will be sending and reveiving radar units for various reasons constantly. The FCC gives a liscense to the agency for every single radar unit being used, but this isn't automatic. The agency must request these liscenses from the FCC by giving them all the information on the unit, only then can they legally use them. Make sure that the serials and other information on the unit match the FCC liscense list that you look at. Because agencies are getting many new units in from time to time, sometimes they fail to register them with the FCC, which is grounds for immediate dismisal of your ticket, and the agency is in a heap of trouble! =) If it's not liscensed with the FCC, they can't use it against you in court, and when radar can't be used based on a radar ticket, your ticket is history.
In addition to what I've mentioned thusfar, there are a few other things that can be used as ammunition for you in court.
A Radar unit can sometimes read the speed of the patrol car's heater or AC fan.
An inadvertent false reasong can appear on a radar unit if the unit's antenna (which is moveable) is pointed for any period of time at the readout part of the unit.
Neon lights, power transformers, electrical storms, and other sources of harmonic frequencies can all influence radar readings as well.
Radio transmitters and towers are a great source of radar interference. Radar itself is a radio wave, CB radios are notorious for messing with radar speed readings. The fact is, many MANY cars have CB equipped, Police Cruisers included, this means that this error happens quite frequently.
Moving radar which is no different from stationary radar besides the fact that it has to calculate in the speed of the police vehicle into the equation. When an officer accelerates too quickly, this throws off the reading of the radar. Most units are unable to compensate for the sudden increase in ground speed from the officer, and until it does catch up, it will add the increase in the officer's speed to the target...which is usually YOU. When an officer makes this mistake, it is known as "batching". When "batching" occurs, it can cause a very substantial error in the speed reading, and this can in turn lead to an unwarranted citation.
Now onto Laser, or "Lidar"
Lidar stands for LIght Detection And Ranging. It works relatively on the same principal as radar only it uses a laser beam as opposed to a radar beam to detect your speed. A laser beam is however very direct, and will hardly ever give a readout of another vehicle. The narrowness of the beam however can be used to your advantage. For instance, if you drive a black RX-7 or Corvette, you have little to worry about. Since lidar uses light to measure speed, there has to be something to reflect that light in order to give a reading. When you drive a black vehicle with retracting headlights, there is very VERY little targeting area in which the Lidar can be used effectively. The only target now is your front liscense plate (if you even have one), if you do, simply tilt the liscense plate upwards a bit to deflect the straight travel of light, after all, its not illegal to make your vehicle invisible to lidar, as long as the cop can see your plates. If your vehicle deflects or absorbs most or all of the light, then the calculation cannot be completed. So if you drive a dark colored vehicle with retractable headlights and little or no chome etc, you are a VERY hard target. In addition to all this, Lidar involves a number of complex counterparts that mean problems for the officer trying to use it. Because of this, Lidar is not terribly popular with cops. An automotive "bra" is also a good way to help make your car invisible to lidar. Or if you drive a pile of crap and really don't care about areodynamics, you can use carpet...anything that absorbs light. Remember, DEFLECT not REFLECT.
Next is pacing.
I won't spend too long with this because anyone who gets a ticket from being paced, is not paying enough attention to their surroundings. Cops have tried to pace me hundreds of times, never with success. I have studied the headlight, taillight, and turn signal paterns for every known vehicle that my local law enforcement uses, and thus can spot that type of vehicle behind me, in front of me, or to the side of me, even at night. You should at LEAST be familiar with the paterns of Ford headlights, especially those of newer model Crown Victorias. They are pretty easy to spot for a few different reasons. The Amber turn signal area is on the inner part of the headlight pointing towards the grill, they are brighter than any other amber strip I've seen, and they have the scattered LED appearance. It's better to waste a little gas slowing down when you see a pair of lights you think might belong to a cop and then speed back up as soon as he passes you. Better safe than sorry. I slow down quite frequently at night when I'm doing 100-160 in the Supra for false alarms, but I can honestly say I've never once been paced by a Cop and received a ticket. The worst thing that happened was once I was doing like 100, saw a Cop come up quick behind and dropped it down a few gears as not to use my brakes. The cop pulled up along side of me and moved his finger back and forth in a "No-no" motion, and then sped off.
One of only a few attacks you have on pacing is the police cruiser's speedometer calibration records. You might ask the officer "Just out of curiosity, when was the last time your cruiser's speedometer was calibrated?" You will probably want to obtain as much of his vehicle's calibration records as possible. Go about obtaining these the same way I told you earlier with the radar records. You will want to try to establish a history of his speedometer being off by any substantial amount by looking over the service records, etc very very carefully as you would with radar documentation. When you actually do show up to court, never tell the officer you have his records. See if you can catch him contradicting himself or the records, regardless of what your talking about. People seem to think that officers are all angels with halos over their heads that would never in a million years do anything like this. Just like us, cops are people too. Try to use stratedgy and tactics. Often times an officer will not bring these records with him. I've put three different Cops in VERY uncomfortable situations in front of the judge by nagging them about the history of their vehicle's calibration records. Due to the fact that I had not yet "revealed my ace", I was able to force the officers to adlib in a last ditch effort to save credability. After I presented evidence that the officer was in fact mistaken, I had scored even more points with the judge. Remember, although the Judge and officer are on the same side, YOU can impress the judge. First impressions are everything. If you show up to court dressed sharp, with a well developed case and knowledge of the law, you impress the judge. Judges are supposed to be impartial to things like this, but they are just like employers, you impress them, you have a better chance of getting what you want. Its that simple. One last thing about pacing, remember, and officer can just as easily pace you while he is in front of you as he can behind you. Don't think for a second that just because a cop blows by you he is always on call or chasing someone else and its ok to follow.
Next is Visual Estimation
This is just a fancy term cops like to use instead of "guessing". It sounds better, and more technical. If your in court for a speeding ticket and at any point the officer says something along the lines of "I estimated your speed to be ___" you might want to use the following example...you have a chance to make him look REALLY bad in front of the judge yet again. Pick up any object, I usually use a pencil. Take any reference point, your shoulder, top of your head, waist, etc. Ask the officer to watch closely. Drop the pencil and then ask him to estimate the exact speed of the pencil at the moment of impact with the ground. Due to the fact that all object have the same rate of speed while falling, I will include a little chart. All you have to do is measure the distance between your reference point and the ground.
Distance Speed
================================================== ===========
3.5 ft..................................10.2mph
4.0 ft..................................10.9mph
4.5 ft..................................11.6mph
5.0 ft..................................12.2mph
5.5 ft..................................12.8mph
6.0 ft..................................13.4mph
6.5 ft..................................13.9mph
Lets say you dropped your pencil from 5.5ft (which is the height of my shoulder). Lets say the officer estimates the speed to be roughly 15mph. Pretty good guess right? Only about 2mph off! Your screwed now right? WRONG! If you were ticketed for around 60mph, the officer's estimation would have been off by roughly 10MPH! You can adapt the calculations to fit whatever your ticket was. The higher the speed is, the more the officer would have been off by. Just make SURE your math is right, YOU don't want to be the idiot.
The last method of speed estimation is known as VASCAR
VASCAR means Visual Average Speed Computer And Recorder. How it works is an officer will pick a begining and end point on a given road. He measures the distance between those two points, and waits for you to cross his "entry" line. Once you have crossed his entry line, he then waits for you to travel the distance to his "ending" line. After you've gone through the measured distance he quickly calculates your rate of speed based on how long it took for you to travel the given distance. The major problem with this type of estimation is usually the POV or point of view of the officer, due to the fact that he will most likely be trying to stay out of immediate site of commuters, will often have a poor line of site on you. If he mis judges the point where you cross his "entry" line, then the officer starts the time late, or stops it early, then your speed can read far over what you were actually going. Another one of many ways of using VASCAR is a CHiP will fly by you at some extremely high speed, as soon as he flys by you, he begins measuring time and distance. You think he's off on some call for a triple homicide, all the while he is still checking time and distance. A few miles down the highway, he pulls over, and waits for you with his watch still going. You think he's long gone and then WHAM, you cross his line, and he calculates once again, how fast you were going. The problem with this is VASCAR can be VERY innacurate at long distances, and especially because of the problems in the first example I gave you. For these reasons VASCAR has been outlawed in many areas due to the fact that is qualifies as a "speed trap".
Another thing I think is important to talk about is the use of patrol planes or choppers. If you get a ticket based on a reading from a patrol plane my first piece of advice is TAKE IT TO COURT. I don't care if your scared sh!tless of the judge and cops, take it to court. The reason is the patrolman in the air will radio down to an officer with a description of your vehicle, and if the officer on the ground does not get your speed himself, he must rely on the air patrol person. These pilots are very rare. There are not many Cops being certified to fly these planes or choppers and as such they get paid a lot. They rarely show to court. I've only been ticketed based on an aircraft reading once, but due to the fact that both the testimony of the ground cop as well as the air cop are required to hold case aginast you, your chances of having your case dismissed by default double.
Unless the officer on the ground actually obtains his own speed reading on you, all he has to go on is the word of the air patrol man and his discription of your vehicle. Obviously there are a lot of things that can go wrong here. Say you drive a common vehicle like an black pickup, or white Camary, etc they have no way of proving that it was in fact YOU that the air patrol man was targeting. They are unable to read your liscense plate number from those aircraft, so all they have to go on is description. Make sure you point out to the judge the fact that you drive one of the most popular cars in America, if that is in fact the case, popular colors will help as well. It will also help to get the sales figures from your local dealership for every year of your car that uses the same body style. If there are other cars made by different manufacturers on the same chasis or relatively same body style, get them too. From that high up they can rarely tell EXACTLY what model of car your driving, unless its an exotic, and lets face it, none of us drive exotics or we wouldn't give a rat's *** about tickets.
If for whatever reason the hand of God comes down, and both the air patrolman, and the ground officer show up, make sure to politely request to the judge that one leave the court room while the other gives his testimony. This will prevent them from prompting each other and building false facts against you...which happens ALL THE TIME.
Photo Radar...this is one of my FAVORITES.
You want advice now that you've received a photo radar ticket in the mail? Well, step one is...wipe your *** with it, and then throw it away, burn it, flush it, give it to your kid to draw on, whatever. *** Photo radar. Photo radar is an invasion of our privacy. To make matters even worse, the photo radar units that are setup at intersections aren't even owned by law enforcement...most are owned by PRIVATE companies. They are very complex devices, in very hard to reach places, and they cost a LOT to keep and maintain. Because of this most law enforcement agencies across the country can do nothing more than lease them from private companies.
When you receive a normal ticket from a Cop, there is the little line at the bottom where it says something like "without admiting guilt, I promise to show up to court at the above date, or pay the fine..." When you get a photo radar ticket, you don't sign ****. Your not obligated to do ****. You didn't sign anything promising a damn thing. Hell, you didn't even know you GOT a ticket. They are not sent out registered mail, that costs too much. They can't prove that you received it either. This type of ticket pisses me off so much. The fact that they use a fuking camera hooked up to a radar unit because the Cops aren't doing their jobs and the county just wants to get it's greedy little hands on more revenue by praying on the idiocy and scare tactics impressed upon it's citizens is an angering thought indeed. The reason you will probably NEVER hear another thing about any of these tickets is there have been MANY law suits against multiple countys across the nation where people have successfully sued them for invasion of privacy, because thats exactly what photo radar is. They know of these law suits and will not press you for fear that you will become angry like the hoards of other people and fight back. Remember, they pray on the naive nature of the few people who are scared into paying the fine.
If for whatever reason you get arrested for one of these tickets, you can easily sue the county or appropriate other for pain and suffering, loss of wages, emotional distress, etc. Being arrested is a very stressful thing. Try to cry, and act deeply wounded that you would ever be arrested (it helps if you have never been arrested before). I don't advocate playing up things just to get money in court, but when a county stoops to the level of using cowardly, privacy invading, and basically WRONG tactics like this, play their own game. Use cheap tactics to fight cheap tactics.
If you so choose to fight your photo radar ticket (and this also works most of the time), make sure to request ANY of the pictures that were taken. They will usuaully not send the pictures along with the citation, they learned better to do that after a man sued the county for invasion of privacy when his spouse and him opened a ticket that had pictures of himself and an unknown female passenger "messing around" in the front seat. The wife split apart from her husband, and the husband sued, and he won, a lot...
Statistics indicate that the vast majority of photo radar pictures are illegible in at least ONE of the following three critical categories.
1. Legible license plate number
2. Make and model of the car identifiable
3. Clearly distinguishable driver.
Number three is usually pretty unclear as most windshields have that dark stripe across the top, people drive with hats on, sun visors down, hands are in the way, head is turned, etc. Even if the driver sort of looks like you (and probably is) you can say "Your honor, I don't know who that is in the driver's seat but I'm 100% sure it isn't me." if you get a reply along the lines of "You mean to tell me thats YOUR car and you don't know who's driving it?" you can reply "exactly...everyone in my family has keys to it, I let my friends use it from time to time, my family members lend it to people on occasion as well for emergencies, or whatnot." I seriously doubt the judge will subpoena everyone in your family, and all your friends, etc. for a speeding ticket.
If you have a truck, leave your tailgate down, you'll get better fuel economy, and it will obstruct your lisence plate. if you live in a state that does not require a front license plate, take it off. I take mine off even though I'm required to have one on for the simple fact that its only a repair violation, and most cops will ignore it anyway. "This is how I got the car officer."
Remember, *** photo radar. Most of the devices aren't even owned by law enforcement, but are mearly leased from private companies in exchange for a percentage of the cash collected. So, think about it, this is nothing more than a cowardly, somewhat "pu$$yish" means of revenue generation. At no time is public saftey, or to protect anyone for that matter in mind, its ALL about the money. Funny, I seem to remember once seeing on the side of a Cop car "To Protect and to Serve." maybe they should change that "to *** you over, and invade your privacy...because we need money"
To wrap this all up, I'll just say a few more things. Most Cops will tell you something like "I've heard them all." or something like that. Well let me tell you, I'm a good bullsh!tter, as many of you already know. I can think of stuff spurr of the moment with ease. Let me just give you a brief run down of a few things that have worked for me.
*Edited out*
Another time I was in San Luis Obispo on Oconor Way which leads to Cuesta College near Cal Poly. It's a long straight road that goes by farms and ranches and such. There is only one intersecting road, but it's flat land so you can see if there are any cars coming from miles away. Anyway, I was doing a top speed run, so I'm driving up the road, and hit the 145 on an uphill before I have to brake. I slow down, and turn around at the cross street. I head back towards the other way (which is downhill). When I am at around 70mph I see the horrid flashing red and blue some distance behind me. I think quickly...so I turn on my hazzards and start stomping on the brakes and letting off. I keep it floored, pick up speed to about 100, and continue stomping on the brakes. After about twenty seconds I let off the gas and pull over to the side of the road, pop the hood, put on my best "Holly **** I almost just died" look on my face, and get out of the car. I walk to the front of the car and pretend to kick it. The Cop finally pulls up behind me, and gets out asking me whats wrong. I explain to him I just put in a new clutch plate and had to move my throttle linkage. I was just doing some 0-60 runs out here where it's safe so I wouldn't put anyone in danger and I wouldn't brake the speed limit. The last time I did it, my throttle linkage got stuck somehow. As soon as I saw you I put on my hazzards to indicate there was a problem. So I started trying to break it loose by stomping on it and the brakes trying "desparately" to slow down. Eventually it unstuck and I slowed down and pulled over immediately. The officer informed me not to kick a car as nice as that, and asked me if I needed help getting a tow truck out there to help tow the car back to my house. I informed him I would be fine, and I would just take surface streets to get back to my house, my huge brakes can easily stop my car as long as I'm only doing 25. I thanked him for his concern, and he waved me off, following close for a little while to make sure I didn't have any further "problems".
*Edited out*
Anyway, I'm tired as hell now, and I'm sure no one will even read this far anyway. So tell me how useful you thought it was. Remember, none of this advice is meant to be construed as any sort of legal advice, and I will NOT be held responsible for anything that happens to you as a result of your mis-use of my information. Thats all I am giving you, information.
Special thanks to Alex Carroll for giving me some of this information. Thanks a million Alex.
SO THIS STORY IS SIMPLY A REPOST NOT MINE...from XFactor95SupraT
LOOOONG. My racing history, and how to get out of tickets! USEFUL!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: If you want to scroll through my story, and onto how to fight your tickets, scroll down to the line with all ****'s
Read something else if you don't want another 95SupraTT Original novel. Cliff notes will be available for $.95 soon.
Ok, so as most of you know, I OWN, but no longer drive (legally) a 1995 Super White Toyota Supra TT. It's targa top, 6speed with black leather all around. It has the premium sound system with sub, and every other option except one...heated seats (grumble)
Anyway, so I got this car in August after I turned 18 in June as a present to myself for my second year of surviving the metaphorical Corporate buttfuking, as well as being an adult. The dream was to own it before I turned 18 (June 13th) but I had problems getting insurance during that period of time, so I had to delay the car slightly.
ANYWAY, as with most Supercar owners, I began to learn of the wonderful world of streetracing. I did a lot of research on cars before deciding which to buy, but I never had any idea how much street credit this car had. Everywhere I went people were asking me all kinds of questions about the car and where I raced, that I quite frankly, didn't have an answer to. So I began to learn as much about the car as I could.
One day I learned about the local street racing scene and found that they meet at In & Out (what a novel idea) on Saturday nights at around 10pm.
So for the next week I did nothing but drive, and drive and drive and drive and DRIVE. I practiced shifting, launching, did research etc. Sometimes I would just drive to LA at 1-4am for no reason other than I was bored and wanted to drive my car. After I felt I knew my car relatively well, I decided to check out street racing.
So I roll towards In & Out expecting to see a bunch of Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes, maybe an RX-7, VR-4, 6speed SS's, etc. But instead as I roll in I find a crowd of little ricer punks (don't get all butt hurt yet) with Eclipses, Civics, Integras, Escorts, etc. with nothing but stickers and body kits. So I roll bye trying to find a good spot to park thats not near a bunch of other cars (I don't even know these guys yet). As I roll through the parking lot everyone's jaw drops and necks nearly break. Remember, this is Santa Barbara, while it may not be rare for a Supra to roll out to an LA street race or other big city scene, most all nice cars in this area are owned by successful, rich, older guys, not 18 year olds who were lucky enough to land a good job. In short, you don't see cars like this in our little scene.
Anyway, I wasn't sure if I should be scared sh!tless or feel proud, but one thing was for sure, I had the attention of everyone within site of my car. So I got out, and walked towards some people. As I got close I realized how many of these guys I actually knew. Over half of them were from my old highschool, and many others I just knew through parties and other friends. Some people ask me what I have done to my car and I tell them its all stock, because I don't know that much about cars yet. I guess I was putting out a vibe that I couldn't drive for **** just because I didn't know cars.
So anyway, before I am there for 3minutes, this kid I saw earlier in a tricked out Civic walks up to me and asks me if I want to race. I tell him sure, I guess he thought that I would be an easy kill, not knowing how to drive my car. I ask him what his car has (like I would even know what he was talking about) and he tells me GSR motor swap, intake, exhaust, headers, chip, and a slightly built engine with a 100shot of Nitrous. Seeing as how I'm not from the car crowd, when you hear the mention of the notorious "NOS" you think it's automatically some kind of super fast racecar.
So we go over to the local spot, and I line up with him, and turn off traction control. There is this other area in an old Swap Meet parking lot where people can be spectators from the other side of a fense (we just come to a full stop about an 1/8th of a mile from that fense on a local highway, so they can see the race from the 1/2way point) Some car pulls up behind us (remember this is my first time racing) and almost hits both the Civic and my Supra. The Civic turns his lights off then back on. I'm sitting there looking at the car in my rearview wondering what the hell is going on (I was too stupid to ask questions back at In & Out). The guy behind us starts flashing his god damn high beams at us. I'm wondering what the hell is going on, maybe there is a Cop coming or something. So while I'm turned around in my seat wondering who this @sshole is, the Civic takes off.
By the time my dumbass turns around, the Civic is ahead like 10 cars, and I realize the guy behind us was signaling when to start the race. So I ease the clutch out with a few wheel hops, I'm glued to the back of my seat. I start pulling the Civic in almost immediately despite his 40mph+ starting on me, and nitrous. I bring it up to 7200RPM's, slam 2nd, and start burning out all over the place, I ease off a little just as I begin to fishtail, and get traction again. I keep the pedal to the metal (or hollow carpet fibers in this case), and sink back into the seat. I bring it up to 7200RPM's again, and carefully slam 3rd. I get only a little chirp this time as I was a little more careful. Just as we are passing the 1/8mile, I FLY by the Civic like it was standing still (yeah I know its just a Civic, but this was my first race). When that happened right in front of all those people, I immediately understood what street racing was all about...the rush.
I kept it floored LONG after the 1/4 just to be "safe", and by the time I put on the brakes, I had already hit fuel cut as I was doing 155 (this was before I knew about removing the traction control fuse to acheive 175)
I headed back to In & Out, and had to wait quite some time for everyone to get back. When people started coming back out, apparently I found out they all thought I had just given the Civic a 10 car handicap. It seemed like a better story to me than "I was actually trying to figure out why the *** the guy behind us was blinking his highbeams at me." So I neither confirmed, nor denied the story, and let them all go right on thinking whatever they wanted to. The guy with the Civic didn't even show up again...I guess he thought I was just trying to make a joke of him or something.
So the night goes on, I meet a bunch of new people, learn a bunch of new things, and had a lot of fun. Word starts going around that they were all headed out to LA to go do a cruise, and then hit up someone's cousin's bach party. This guy comes up and starts talking to me about my car. Somewhere along the line we get to talking about the Civic race, and I guess my pride was showing a little more than I had thought. He tells me "You know, it was only a Civic dude."
A few minutes later, and right before we were all about to leave, we hear this rumble from freeway exit. A minute or two later, this SHOWROOM shined White El Camino comes rolling up into the parking lot with a BIG *** BLOWER sticking up out of the hood. I never liked El Caminos much, but I started out as a Muscle Car ****...I thought they were unbeatable, Godlike, etc. One thing was for damn sure, I was NOT going to *** with this car, the bark was so intimidating, you didn't even WANT to feel what the bite was like. Everyone was joking the car as it rolled around, I heard people saying stuff like "damn I bet that car runs 9's" etc.
He circles the parking lot a few times, and this kid Andrew with one of the Jackson Racing Supercharged Type R's in town, says "I think he wants to call someone out". Being an novice I guess didn't really matter to anyone, because everyone looked at me, including the guy in the El Camino with this huge **** eating grin on his face. I was slowly realizing that beating a little engine swaped and NOS'd Civic wasn't going to get me any respect with this crowd, and I better represent the Supra name. So I announce "*** it, I'll race him for ***** and giggles, just to see how well I can keep up."
I ignore the top, and just jump in my car. This time, not just a few people get into their cars, there was a flock of people getting into their cars. Every single person who was there for the meet got in their car and followed.
We got back over to the spot, there were a few more people behind us than I would have liked, but most everyone headed to the parking lot on the other side of the highway. As we line up I realize my hands are shaking. I hold the clutch down and feel my knee bouncing up and down like I was giving a little cousin a "horsie ride".
This time the guy yells over to me "How do you want to do this?" I yell back "You got horn loud enough to hear over that beast?" He reply's "WHAT?" I say "DO YOU HAVE A HORN" he nods and I just say "HONK THREE TIMES, WE'LL GO ON THREE" he nods and rolls his window back up. At this time I struggling to keep my cool, because I was practically flipping out looking at that fuking blower.
He honks once, twice, and right as I hear the third honk begin I hear his tires chirp and I was already easing my foot off the clutch. We both got off the line about the same time and to my amazement he didn't have any traction problems. I slowly eased ahead in 1st about half a car by the end, trying to keep my cool and not let my half car length go to my head I slam second with a little chirp, I've pulled ahead about two full cars by the time I nail 3rd, we go sailing by the watchers and I'm about three cars ahead. I just kept right on going just like I did last time not knowing where the 1/4 ended. So again, I hit fuel cut at like 153-156.
I know that car should have taken me out, but I didn't give a rat's ***. I know blowers can act up, and he probably wasn't boosting much, but I was happy as hell. My "sh!tty import" blew the doors off a big bad muscle classic. Twice the displacement, constant forced induction, and taken out by a little old 182CI took out a big bad 350 (at least) and from the sound of it a 454. And I thought I was gonna lose, which made it even better.
Anyway, when I got to the exit for In & Out, I turned the opposite direction to give people a chance to get back. I went over to this gas station on the other side of the freeway, and go my car washed and waxed real quick. Before I pulled out, I got one of my girlfriend's greatest hits of the 70's and 80's CD's out. I popped it into the CD player, and put it on Queen's "Another one bites the dust". I splashed some (ROFL) Fuji spring water in my hair cause I love the cool feeling that it gives with the targa off. I headed back towards In & Out with a REALLY big head, and nicely stroked ego. Just before I got to the entrance for the parking lot, I fast forwarded it to the **DUN DUN DUN** "ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST, and ANOTHER ONE GONE and ANOTHER ONE GONE, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!"
Everyone had a big smile on their face, and I knew what my sport of choice would now be. My first night out, and I had a name for myself. Immature...probably, but I felt better that night than I had in a looooong time.
Anyway, that was my first night of street racing. I won't bore you with ever other detail, but I've raced quite a few cars, and only turned down ONE race, and thats with this kid Billy with a proven 9second El Camino, and that was at Palm Dale, so I don't even wanna know what he'd run at Sea level.
I've racing everything from Z06's (the closest race I've ever had) to modified Geo Metros and Ford Festivas. I even raced some little punk on a little b!tch *** ninja on the freeway and took him out.
A few months later, I was out at State Beaches racing. I had just smoked this kid named "In" in a red Prelude with a fat turbo (only boosting 12PSi) and some NOS to help spool it. I pull back onto the dirt parking area by the shore, and just pumped some classic rock tunes (I'm sick and tired of you little b!tches and your Eminem, Backseat ***s, wannabe Thug Rap, Venga Boys, etc).
This kid comes up to me and starts talking to me. He introduces himself as Jeremy. So we're talking for a little while, and eventually he tells me he runs a little racing crew out of Oxnard. I politely take this card that he wrote his number on, and tell him I'd call him sometime to hang out or whatever. I always raced for myself, and never really wanted to be a part of some "crew" or whatever.
Anyway like a few weeks go by, and I'm doing laundry and I come across Jeremy's card. So I call him, and setup a time to meet him. He tells me I should come and hang out with the crew and meet some new friends. So I agree and I meet up with them, and that's how I met XFactor.
It only got better from there, I met RevHappyGTS, who at the time had a white GSR, and soon after bought the 2nd gen MR-2 from who now is one of the VR-4 owners. Jeremy of course was there (who you might know as XFactor VR-4) Then I met this little punk kid with a WRX and I wanted to sock him (naw just playin foo=) I got along great with everyone and they were a badass bunch of guys to chill with. Before I knew it, we were hanging out all the time, and partyin it up. The crew was running STRONG with:
My 95 Supra TT 6speed
a 93.5 Supra T-78 6speed (which has now been converted into a moveable fuct 2ton wad of metal)
a 93 RX-7
a 95 VR-4
a 91 VR-4
a Mk2 MR-2 Turbo
a 2002 IS300
an SE-R
2 GSRs (one with the JDM swap and LSD...one of RevHappy's old rides)
a Turbo Civic with NOS
etc.
Some of these cars are no longer with us, but the big boys are still around.
Anyway, so thats the jist of it. I've been getting a lot of PM's recently so I just decided to explain it to everyone.
NOW for the useful part.
************************************************** **********
************************************************** **********
************************************************** **********
Why should you trust me? Well, I've been ticketed for over $10 thousand dollars in fines through the later 2 of my 4 years driving. I've paid just under 6grand of that. Not all THAT impressive, I admit, but 4grand is 4grand. On the other hand I was stupid and paid many of these fines before I had a chance to argue them in court. I've never once developed a case, gone in front of a judge to fight a ticket, and lost. My Great Uncle whom I talk to all the time is a retired Sgt. with the St Louis PD. He's worked with Highway Patrol etc. I was a Criminal Justice major before I switched to Computer Science and then Business Administration. And last, 4 years of undefeated victories in Mock Trial and Debate (including State), plus a few little real life court hearings here and there for hell raising as a young kid have all given me a little extra knowledge as to the inner workings of the law.
First off, the most important ticket, speeding. I'll go over that first, as that is what I am most familiar with.
There are several different ways an office can give you a speeding ticket. They will undoubtedly use one of the following methods: Laser or "Lidar", Radar, Pacing, Visual Estimate &/or VASCAR.
We'll start with Radar. How radar works is when the radar device is pointed at your vehicle, it emits a radio waves on a particular frequency (I'll explain how important for you this frequency is later). These radio waves eventually travel to your vehicle, and bounce off, returning to the radar device on a different frequency. In theory, this change in frequency is directly proportional to how fast you are traveling. The radar devide merely calculates this difference, and comes up with an estimated speed. In order for the radar to work properly, it must be pointed DIRECTLY at you. There can be no obstructions in the way ie: other cars, bushes, trees, rocks etc. The device must also be relatively close to you in order to insure that it's reading your speed and not another vehicle's. Radar does not emit an even, narrow, direct beam, but instead is more like a sprinkler or headlight. It is emitted from the device, and spreads out wider and wider over a distance. It's proven that at only one eighth of a mile from the standard unit, a radar beam will be around 4 lanes wide, and sometimes wider. So if your speeding ticket is based on radar, make sure you ask the officer "How far away from me were you when you "clocked" me if you don't mind my asking?" If there was enough space, he could very well have clocked someone in a different lane, or even on the other side of the road.
In addition to all this, radar based speed reading devices have a tendancy to read speeds of bigger objects rather than smaller ones, so if there is some bigger truck near you, he may cause you to get a speeding ticket when you were only traveling the speed limit due to the fact that the radar device read the speed of the truck behind you, but the officer tickets you because you were in front. I've also read in a radar training manual (don't ask how I got it) that sometimes the radar unit can read the speed of blowing dust, branches, rain, leaves etc. So if you were ticketed under these conditions, you might have ample reason to get your ticket dismissed.
Now the how get ammo to fight the pigs. Far too many people think that if they get a radar ticket, thats means: pay, end of story. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are a vast amount of opportunities that will present themselves for you to get out of a radar ticket. First off, there are certain things that are a matter of public record and that you have a right to know and sometimes see. Radar is a VERY sensitive piece of machinery, and as such, it is VERY vulnerable to other variables causing it to be innacurate. If you can raise a reasonable doubt that any of these variables were involved with your ticket, the radar reading becomes inadmisable in court, and your case will have a VERY good chance of being dismissed.
If you get a radar ticket for exceeding a posted speed limit, make sure you find out if there has been a recent traffic and engineering survey taken on that road. Most often, they must be updated every 5 years in order to be valid. What they do is measure the speed of 85% of the traffic, and from this average, is supposed to be the basis of which speed limits are made. Often times, an officer CANNOT use radar for the purpose of ticketing people if there is not an up to date copy of the traffic and engineering survey present with him in court. Remember, the judge and the pig are friends, and they are expecting you not to know your **** when you show up in court so often times the judge will not ask the pig for this document, so its up to you to make sure you ask for it if the judge doesn't. In many places, the court will permit you to actually request the data that makes up these surveys, therefore, if your so inclined (like myself) you can often challenge the city's accuracy on the survey itself.
Most of these surveys are conducted using one of those remote radar trailers. I'm sure you've seen them around, they look like little boxes mounted onto a trailer with a little screen that shows you how fast your going. The main pain in the *** is the fact that when most people see these things they slam on their brakes because they think there is a little camera that will take a picture of their liscense plate and ticket them in the mail. This is NOT true. What IS true, is often times a pig will sit a little after one of these and radar people himself. So look around, if there are no cops, GUN IT, as soon as you pass the trailer, or it stops reading you, slam on the brakes and slow back down to the posted speed limit. You'll be doing everyone a favor.
When an officer pulls you over for speeding and he used radar to clock you, you may ask to see the reading on the unit at that time. Usually, it has been my experience that they'll allow me to look at it. If they say no, then I take note of that and will later use it as ammunition against the officer in court.
Many radar based speeding tickets are dismissed every year because the defendant may request any or all the following and does not receive them:
1. The Radar unit's calibration, maintenance, and history records.
2. The officer's certifications for radar training or other things.
3. The tuning fork(s) used to calibrate the radar unit as well as their calibration certificates.
4. The specific radar unit that was used.
5. That agency's FCC license
6. List of models, makes and serial numbers of every radar unit currently in use with that agency.
The things above are a matter of public record, which as most of us know, means that we all have a right to obtain these records to insure that a safe, fair, and truthful trial takes place. You may obtain these records one of a few different ways. The first is you may go to the officer's (who issued you the ticket) specific agency, and ask to speak with someone whom can help you with public records like the Public Records Custodian, or another officer. You give them a detailed list of what exactly it is you want. If they aren't *******s about it, they'll give you pretty much everything you asked for except probably the tuning forks and radar unit itself. They'll probably tell you that the officer will bring these with him to the trial.
If on the other hand, they ARE *******s and refuse you any of this information, you can call the State Attorney General whom is in charge of prosecuting all violations of public records laws. Mark my words, you'll get EXACTLY what you asked for in short order after notifiying the S.A.G. If you really want revenge you can even file a civil lawsuit against that agency for punitive damages.
You can also sobpoena anything reasonable you wish from the court. You may do this by requesting them at the court clerk explaining the things you want. The only catch to this is you need to do it 14days in advance, furthermore you won't get to check out the records until the actual court date, which takes valuable time from the construction of a bulletproof case. Look for any inconsistancies within whatever records you get, these leave the cop very unstable ground to testify upon.
Many times an agency will be sending and reveiving radar units for various reasons constantly. The FCC gives a liscense to the agency for every single radar unit being used, but this isn't automatic. The agency must request these liscenses from the FCC by giving them all the information on the unit, only then can they legally use them. Make sure that the serials and other information on the unit match the FCC liscense list that you look at. Because agencies are getting many new units in from time to time, sometimes they fail to register them with the FCC, which is grounds for immediate dismisal of your ticket, and the agency is in a heap of trouble! =) If it's not liscensed with the FCC, they can't use it against you in court, and when radar can't be used based on a radar ticket, your ticket is history.
In addition to what I've mentioned thusfar, there are a few other things that can be used as ammunition for you in court.
A Radar unit can sometimes read the speed of the patrol car's heater or AC fan.
An inadvertent false reasong can appear on a radar unit if the unit's antenna (which is moveable) is pointed for any period of time at the readout part of the unit.
Neon lights, power transformers, electrical storms, and other sources of harmonic frequencies can all influence radar readings as well.
Radio transmitters and towers are a great source of radar interference. Radar itself is a radio wave, CB radios are notorious for messing with radar speed readings. The fact is, many MANY cars have CB equipped, Police Cruisers included, this means that this error happens quite frequently.
Moving radar which is no different from stationary radar besides the fact that it has to calculate in the speed of the police vehicle into the equation. When an officer accelerates too quickly, this throws off the reading of the radar. Most units are unable to compensate for the sudden increase in ground speed from the officer, and until it does catch up, it will add the increase in the officer's speed to the target...which is usually YOU. When an officer makes this mistake, it is known as "batching". When "batching" occurs, it can cause a very substantial error in the speed reading, and this can in turn lead to an unwarranted citation.
Now onto Laser, or "Lidar"
Lidar stands for LIght Detection And Ranging. It works relatively on the same principal as radar only it uses a laser beam as opposed to a radar beam to detect your speed. A laser beam is however very direct, and will hardly ever give a readout of another vehicle. The narrowness of the beam however can be used to your advantage. For instance, if you drive a black RX-7 or Corvette, you have little to worry about. Since lidar uses light to measure speed, there has to be something to reflect that light in order to give a reading. When you drive a black vehicle with retracting headlights, there is very VERY little targeting area in which the Lidar can be used effectively. The only target now is your front liscense plate (if you even have one), if you do, simply tilt the liscense plate upwards a bit to deflect the straight travel of light, after all, its not illegal to make your vehicle invisible to lidar, as long as the cop can see your plates. If your vehicle deflects or absorbs most or all of the light, then the calculation cannot be completed. So if you drive a dark colored vehicle with retractable headlights and little or no chome etc, you are a VERY hard target. In addition to all this, Lidar involves a number of complex counterparts that mean problems for the officer trying to use it. Because of this, Lidar is not terribly popular with cops. An automotive "bra" is also a good way to help make your car invisible to lidar. Or if you drive a pile of crap and really don't care about areodynamics, you can use carpet...anything that absorbs light. Remember, DEFLECT not REFLECT.
Next is pacing.
I won't spend too long with this because anyone who gets a ticket from being paced, is not paying enough attention to their surroundings. Cops have tried to pace me hundreds of times, never with success. I have studied the headlight, taillight, and turn signal paterns for every known vehicle that my local law enforcement uses, and thus can spot that type of vehicle behind me, in front of me, or to the side of me, even at night. You should at LEAST be familiar with the paterns of Ford headlights, especially those of newer model Crown Victorias. They are pretty easy to spot for a few different reasons. The Amber turn signal area is on the inner part of the headlight pointing towards the grill, they are brighter than any other amber strip I've seen, and they have the scattered LED appearance. It's better to waste a little gas slowing down when you see a pair of lights you think might belong to a cop and then speed back up as soon as he passes you. Better safe than sorry. I slow down quite frequently at night when I'm doing 100-160 in the Supra for false alarms, but I can honestly say I've never once been paced by a Cop and received a ticket. The worst thing that happened was once I was doing like 100, saw a Cop come up quick behind and dropped it down a few gears as not to use my brakes. The cop pulled up along side of me and moved his finger back and forth in a "No-no" motion, and then sped off.
One of only a few attacks you have on pacing is the police cruiser's speedometer calibration records. You might ask the officer "Just out of curiosity, when was the last time your cruiser's speedometer was calibrated?" You will probably want to obtain as much of his vehicle's calibration records as possible. Go about obtaining these the same way I told you earlier with the radar records. You will want to try to establish a history of his speedometer being off by any substantial amount by looking over the service records, etc very very carefully as you would with radar documentation. When you actually do show up to court, never tell the officer you have his records. See if you can catch him contradicting himself or the records, regardless of what your talking about. People seem to think that officers are all angels with halos over their heads that would never in a million years do anything like this. Just like us, cops are people too. Try to use stratedgy and tactics. Often times an officer will not bring these records with him. I've put three different Cops in VERY uncomfortable situations in front of the judge by nagging them about the history of their vehicle's calibration records. Due to the fact that I had not yet "revealed my ace", I was able to force the officers to adlib in a last ditch effort to save credability. After I presented evidence that the officer was in fact mistaken, I had scored even more points with the judge. Remember, although the Judge and officer are on the same side, YOU can impress the judge. First impressions are everything. If you show up to court dressed sharp, with a well developed case and knowledge of the law, you impress the judge. Judges are supposed to be impartial to things like this, but they are just like employers, you impress them, you have a better chance of getting what you want. Its that simple. One last thing about pacing, remember, and officer can just as easily pace you while he is in front of you as he can behind you. Don't think for a second that just because a cop blows by you he is always on call or chasing someone else and its ok to follow.
Next is Visual Estimation
This is just a fancy term cops like to use instead of "guessing". It sounds better, and more technical. If your in court for a speeding ticket and at any point the officer says something along the lines of "I estimated your speed to be ___" you might want to use the following example...you have a chance to make him look REALLY bad in front of the judge yet again. Pick up any object, I usually use a pencil. Take any reference point, your shoulder, top of your head, waist, etc. Ask the officer to watch closely. Drop the pencil and then ask him to estimate the exact speed of the pencil at the moment of impact with the ground. Due to the fact that all object have the same rate of speed while falling, I will include a little chart. All you have to do is measure the distance between your reference point and the ground.
Distance Speed
================================================== ===========
3.5 ft..................................10.2mph
4.0 ft..................................10.9mph
4.5 ft..................................11.6mph
5.0 ft..................................12.2mph
5.5 ft..................................12.8mph
6.0 ft..................................13.4mph
6.5 ft..................................13.9mph
Lets say you dropped your pencil from 5.5ft (which is the height of my shoulder). Lets say the officer estimates the speed to be roughly 15mph. Pretty good guess right? Only about 2mph off! Your screwed now right? WRONG! If you were ticketed for around 60mph, the officer's estimation would have been off by roughly 10MPH! You can adapt the calculations to fit whatever your ticket was. The higher the speed is, the more the officer would have been off by. Just make SURE your math is right, YOU don't want to be the idiot.
The last method of speed estimation is known as VASCAR
VASCAR means Visual Average Speed Computer And Recorder. How it works is an officer will pick a begining and end point on a given road. He measures the distance between those two points, and waits for you to cross his "entry" line. Once you have crossed his entry line, he then waits for you to travel the distance to his "ending" line. After you've gone through the measured distance he quickly calculates your rate of speed based on how long it took for you to travel the given distance. The major problem with this type of estimation is usually the POV or point of view of the officer, due to the fact that he will most likely be trying to stay out of immediate site of commuters, will often have a poor line of site on you. If he mis judges the point where you cross his "entry" line, then the officer starts the time late, or stops it early, then your speed can read far over what you were actually going. Another one of many ways of using VASCAR is a CHiP will fly by you at some extremely high speed, as soon as he flys by you, he begins measuring time and distance. You think he's off on some call for a triple homicide, all the while he is still checking time and distance. A few miles down the highway, he pulls over, and waits for you with his watch still going. You think he's long gone and then WHAM, you cross his line, and he calculates once again, how fast you were going. The problem with this is VASCAR can be VERY innacurate at long distances, and especially because of the problems in the first example I gave you. For these reasons VASCAR has been outlawed in many areas due to the fact that is qualifies as a "speed trap".
Another thing I think is important to talk about is the use of patrol planes or choppers. If you get a ticket based on a reading from a patrol plane my first piece of advice is TAKE IT TO COURT. I don't care if your scared sh!tless of the judge and cops, take it to court. The reason is the patrolman in the air will radio down to an officer with a description of your vehicle, and if the officer on the ground does not get your speed himself, he must rely on the air patrol person. These pilots are very rare. There are not many Cops being certified to fly these planes or choppers and as such they get paid a lot. They rarely show to court. I've only been ticketed based on an aircraft reading once, but due to the fact that both the testimony of the ground cop as well as the air cop are required to hold case aginast you, your chances of having your case dismissed by default double.
Unless the officer on the ground actually obtains his own speed reading on you, all he has to go on is the word of the air patrol man and his discription of your vehicle. Obviously there are a lot of things that can go wrong here. Say you drive a common vehicle like an black pickup, or white Camary, etc they have no way of proving that it was in fact YOU that the air patrol man was targeting. They are unable to read your liscense plate number from those aircraft, so all they have to go on is description. Make sure you point out to the judge the fact that you drive one of the most popular cars in America, if that is in fact the case, popular colors will help as well. It will also help to get the sales figures from your local dealership for every year of your car that uses the same body style. If there are other cars made by different manufacturers on the same chasis or relatively same body style, get them too. From that high up they can rarely tell EXACTLY what model of car your driving, unless its an exotic, and lets face it, none of us drive exotics or we wouldn't give a rat's *** about tickets.
If for whatever reason the hand of God comes down, and both the air patrolman, and the ground officer show up, make sure to politely request to the judge that one leave the court room while the other gives his testimony. This will prevent them from prompting each other and building false facts against you...which happens ALL THE TIME.
Photo Radar...this is one of my FAVORITES.
You want advice now that you've received a photo radar ticket in the mail? Well, step one is...wipe your *** with it, and then throw it away, burn it, flush it, give it to your kid to draw on, whatever. *** Photo radar. Photo radar is an invasion of our privacy. To make matters even worse, the photo radar units that are setup at intersections aren't even owned by law enforcement...most are owned by PRIVATE companies. They are very complex devices, in very hard to reach places, and they cost a LOT to keep and maintain. Because of this most law enforcement agencies across the country can do nothing more than lease them from private companies.
When you receive a normal ticket from a Cop, there is the little line at the bottom where it says something like "without admiting guilt, I promise to show up to court at the above date, or pay the fine..." When you get a photo radar ticket, you don't sign ****. Your not obligated to do ****. You didn't sign anything promising a damn thing. Hell, you didn't even know you GOT a ticket. They are not sent out registered mail, that costs too much. They can't prove that you received it either. This type of ticket pisses me off so much. The fact that they use a fuking camera hooked up to a radar unit because the Cops aren't doing their jobs and the county just wants to get it's greedy little hands on more revenue by praying on the idiocy and scare tactics impressed upon it's citizens is an angering thought indeed. The reason you will probably NEVER hear another thing about any of these tickets is there have been MANY law suits against multiple countys across the nation where people have successfully sued them for invasion of privacy, because thats exactly what photo radar is. They know of these law suits and will not press you for fear that you will become angry like the hoards of other people and fight back. Remember, they pray on the naive nature of the few people who are scared into paying the fine.
If for whatever reason you get arrested for one of these tickets, you can easily sue the county or appropriate other for pain and suffering, loss of wages, emotional distress, etc. Being arrested is a very stressful thing. Try to cry, and act deeply wounded that you would ever be arrested (it helps if you have never been arrested before). I don't advocate playing up things just to get money in court, but when a county stoops to the level of using cowardly, privacy invading, and basically WRONG tactics like this, play their own game. Use cheap tactics to fight cheap tactics.
If you so choose to fight your photo radar ticket (and this also works most of the time), make sure to request ANY of the pictures that were taken. They will usuaully not send the pictures along with the citation, they learned better to do that after a man sued the county for invasion of privacy when his spouse and him opened a ticket that had pictures of himself and an unknown female passenger "messing around" in the front seat. The wife split apart from her husband, and the husband sued, and he won, a lot...
Statistics indicate that the vast majority of photo radar pictures are illegible in at least ONE of the following three critical categories.
1. Legible license plate number
2. Make and model of the car identifiable
3. Clearly distinguishable driver.
Number three is usually pretty unclear as most windshields have that dark stripe across the top, people drive with hats on, sun visors down, hands are in the way, head is turned, etc. Even if the driver sort of looks like you (and probably is) you can say "Your honor, I don't know who that is in the driver's seat but I'm 100% sure it isn't me." if you get a reply along the lines of "You mean to tell me thats YOUR car and you don't know who's driving it?" you can reply "exactly...everyone in my family has keys to it, I let my friends use it from time to time, my family members lend it to people on occasion as well for emergencies, or whatnot." I seriously doubt the judge will subpoena everyone in your family, and all your friends, etc. for a speeding ticket.
If you have a truck, leave your tailgate down, you'll get better fuel economy, and it will obstruct your lisence plate. if you live in a state that does not require a front license plate, take it off. I take mine off even though I'm required to have one on for the simple fact that its only a repair violation, and most cops will ignore it anyway. "This is how I got the car officer."
Remember, *** photo radar. Most of the devices aren't even owned by law enforcement, but are mearly leased from private companies in exchange for a percentage of the cash collected. So, think about it, this is nothing more than a cowardly, somewhat "pu$$yish" means of revenue generation. At no time is public saftey, or to protect anyone for that matter in mind, its ALL about the money. Funny, I seem to remember once seeing on the side of a Cop car "To Protect and to Serve." maybe they should change that "to *** you over, and invade your privacy...because we need money"
To wrap this all up, I'll just say a few more things. Most Cops will tell you something like "I've heard them all." or something like that. Well let me tell you, I'm a good bullsh!tter, as many of you already know. I can think of stuff spurr of the moment with ease. Let me just give you a brief run down of a few things that have worked for me.
*Edited out*
Another time I was in San Luis Obispo on Oconor Way which leads to Cuesta College near Cal Poly. It's a long straight road that goes by farms and ranches and such. There is only one intersecting road, but it's flat land so you can see if there are any cars coming from miles away. Anyway, I was doing a top speed run, so I'm driving up the road, and hit the 145 on an uphill before I have to brake. I slow down, and turn around at the cross street. I head back towards the other way (which is downhill). When I am at around 70mph I see the horrid flashing red and blue some distance behind me. I think quickly...so I turn on my hazzards and start stomping on the brakes and letting off. I keep it floored, pick up speed to about 100, and continue stomping on the brakes. After about twenty seconds I let off the gas and pull over to the side of the road, pop the hood, put on my best "Holly **** I almost just died" look on my face, and get out of the car. I walk to the front of the car and pretend to kick it. The Cop finally pulls up behind me, and gets out asking me whats wrong. I explain to him I just put in a new clutch plate and had to move my throttle linkage. I was just doing some 0-60 runs out here where it's safe so I wouldn't put anyone in danger and I wouldn't brake the speed limit. The last time I did it, my throttle linkage got stuck somehow. As soon as I saw you I put on my hazzards to indicate there was a problem. So I started trying to break it loose by stomping on it and the brakes trying "desparately" to slow down. Eventually it unstuck and I slowed down and pulled over immediately. The officer informed me not to kick a car as nice as that, and asked me if I needed help getting a tow truck out there to help tow the car back to my house. I informed him I would be fine, and I would just take surface streets to get back to my house, my huge brakes can easily stop my car as long as I'm only doing 25. I thanked him for his concern, and he waved me off, following close for a little while to make sure I didn't have any further "problems".
*Edited out*
Anyway, I'm tired as hell now, and I'm sure no one will even read this far anyway. So tell me how useful you thought it was. Remember, none of this advice is meant to be construed as any sort of legal advice, and I will NOT be held responsible for anything that happens to you as a result of your mis-use of my information. Thats all I am giving you, information.
Special thanks to Alex Carroll for giving me some of this information. Thanks a million Alex.
05-03-2005
#6
k!llin al-queda since 2002
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: from socal (626,909)/ in the army
Age: 39
Posts: 280
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 0 
i read the whole thing. not much to do. a lot of good info. wish i would have known a month ago i would have told my buddy to fight his ticket
05-03-2005
#9
O RLY
Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Age: 44
Posts: 10,031
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 376 
Everything he says about getting out of tickets is pretty much bullshit.
Though a defendant can request records about maintenance of a radar gun, training records, etc, none of that matters. If the officer shows up, he merely needs to testify that he tested the gun that day and that it was in working condition. How do I know? Because I tried this once, and it doesn't work. Just because you don't receive everything you are seeking for disclosure, doesn't mean the officer can't show up that day and testify to the fact of your requests to satisfaction of the judge/jury.
This guy is an idiot, and his story was completely fabricated. This was all gone through in a massive thread about 4 years ago on another car forum website.
This is another flawed argument. Why? The 5 year basis of surveying roads is a SUGGESTION. NOT A LAW! Again... moron.
again, dumbass.... there is no law requiring the officer to show you the gun, and just because he won't doesn't mean jack ****.
More often than not, they WILL show up to court, because they are on tax payers time, and getting paid to be there, so it's no skin off their back.
what a focktard. firstly, this IS an accepted protocol for tracking a car's speed from the air. secondly, often the policeman checking the car's speed keeps an eye on the vehicle to the moment the officer pulls the car over.
Anyways, I could go on and on and pick apart this guy's entire f*cking bullshit story and theories on traffic tickets, but you get the point. As stated, the guy was already found to be a complete fraud and moron 4 years ago.
Though a defendant can request records about maintenance of a radar gun, training records, etc, none of that matters. If the officer shows up, he merely needs to testify that he tested the gun that day and that it was in working condition. How do I know? Because I tried this once, and it doesn't work. Just because you don't receive everything you are seeking for disclosure, doesn't mean the officer can't show up that day and testify to the fact of your requests to satisfaction of the judge/jury.
This guy is an idiot, and his story was completely fabricated. This was all gone through in a massive thread about 4 years ago on another car forum website.
Most often, they must be updated every 5 years in order to be valid. What they do is measure the speed of 85% of the traffic, and from this average, is supposed to be the basis of which speed limits are made. Often times, an officer CANNOT use radar for the purpose of ticketing people if there is not an up to date copy of the traffic and engineering survey present with him in court.
When an officer pulls you over for speeding and he used radar to clock you, you may ask to see the reading on the unit at that time. Usually, it has been my experience that they'll allow me to look at it. If they say no, then I take note of that and will later use it as ammunition against the officer in court.
I've only been ticketed based on an aircraft reading once, but due to the fact that both the testimony of the ground cop as well as the air cop are required to hold case aginast you, your chances of having your case dismissed by default double.
Unless the officer on the ground actually obtains his own speed reading on you, all he has to go on is the word of the air patrol man and his discription of your vehicle. Obviously there are a lot of things that can go wrong here. Say you drive a common vehicle like an black pickup, or white Camary, etc they have no way of proving that it was in fact YOU that the air patrol man was targeting.
Anyways, I could go on and on and pick apart this guy's entire f*cking bullshit story and theories on traffic tickets, but you get the point. As stated, the guy was already found to be a complete fraud and moron 4 years ago.
05-03-2005
#11
My penis is just like all my posts, very very short
Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: SF Area
Age: 38
Posts: 7,594
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 324
Originally Posted by 2blu
to long. Di u have clif notes?
05-03-2005
#12
O RLY
Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Age: 44
Posts: 10,031
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 376 cliff notes: you're better off spending the 10 minutes it takes to read this on something more constructive.... like eating your own crap.
05-04-2005
#14
Smuggling bananas and mexicans all for one low price...
Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (11)
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Langley AFB, VA
Age: 38
Posts: 9,996
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 373 *looks at s2k man* bwhahahaahhahahahhahaahhhahahahha *points at story* bwhaahahahahahaha *looks at v-tech sticker* =*(
05-04-2005
#15
Registered!!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: So Cal
Posts: 653
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 0 
s2kman, before you call BS... you must know that cali law/cops are much different than the ones where you live. Alot of this stuff WORKS. I know santa barbara police, since Im there 2weekends out of the month and they pulled me over a few times. We have much stricter police and laws out here, but there is also more shady cops and loop holes than you could imagine.
One example is, I was doing 90mph going to UCSB (university of santa barbara), cop pulled me over and told me "why where you doing 90"? I simply told him, "Im very late for a midterm, and I have to be there or ill fail my class, I know I was speeding". He said, "Don't speed! Now hurry to class youngman". I wasn't surprised, since ive used this line a few times. Ive had friends use the "I have to pee" line awell, lol.
In cali (i believe) by law the cop has to get his laser calibrated every month or the readings are drasticly off and he has to show proof of it, some cops are lazy (loop hole) and don't think your gonna ask in court "I want proof of the last calibration", the judge will honor it.
One example is, I was doing 90mph going to UCSB (university of santa barbara), cop pulled me over and told me "why where you doing 90"? I simply told him, "Im very late for a midterm, and I have to be there or ill fail my class, I know I was speeding". He said, "Don't speed! Now hurry to class youngman". I wasn't surprised, since ive used this line a few times. Ive had friends use the "I have to pee" line awell, lol.
In cali (i believe) by law the cop has to get his laser calibrated every month or the readings are drasticly off and he has to show proof of it, some cops are lazy (loop hole) and don't think your gonna ask in court "I want proof of the last calibration", the judge will honor it.
05-04-2005
#16
O RLY
Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Age: 44
Posts: 10,031
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 376
Originally Posted by HorrorSkopes
s2kman, before you call BS... you must know that cali law/cops are much different than the ones where you live. Alot of this stuff WORKS. I know santa barbara police, since Im there 2weekends out of the month and they pulled me over a few times. We have much stricter police and laws out here, but there is also more shady cops and loop holes than you could imagine.
One example is, I was doing 90mph going to UCSB (university of santa barbara), cop pulled me over and told me "why where you doing 90"? I simply told him, "Im very late for a midterm, and I have to be there or ill fail my class, I know I was speeding". He said, "Don't speed! Now hurry to class youngman". I wasn't surprised, since ive used this line a few times. Ive had friends use the "I have to pee" line awell, lol.
In cali (i believe) by law the cop has to get his laser calibrated every month or the readings are drasticly off and he has to show proof of it, some cops are lazy (loop hole) and don't think your gonna ask in court "I want proof of the last calibration", the judge will honor it.
One example is, I was doing 90mph going to UCSB (university of santa barbara), cop pulled me over and told me "why where you doing 90"? I simply told him, "Im very late for a midterm, and I have to be there or ill fail my class, I know I was speeding". He said, "Don't speed! Now hurry to class youngman". I wasn't surprised, since ive used this line a few times. Ive had friends use the "I have to pee" line awell, lol.
In cali (i believe) by law the cop has to get his laser calibrated every month or the readings are drasticly off and he has to show proof of it, some cops are lazy (loop hole) and don't think your gonna ask in court "I want proof of the last calibration", the judge will honor it.
second, often times honesty is always the best policy. the cop probably let you go because you were honest. i've noticed that any time i try to offer an excuse or lie, the cop serves up a ticket. if i'm honest, they usually let me go.
last, chances are a cop is not responsible for calibrating his gun. it must be done by someone licensed by the food and drug administration or qualified to do it. also, the equipment is owned by the police station, not the individual officers, and often times each officer will not have a lidar gun, so they must pass the ones they do have from one officer to another.
and last last, i would like to see where california law states the lidar gun must be calibrated monthly. I'm willing to bet there isn't one. why? because the FDA and the company that makes them says every 5 years.
05-04-2005
#17
Registered!!
Thread Starter
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Reppin' the 401
Age: 37
Posts: 741
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Rep Power: 241
Originally Posted by S2000man01
and last last, i would like to see where california law states the lidar gun must be calibrated monthly. I'm willing to bet there isn't one. why? because the FDA and the company that makes them says every 5 years.
DPS = Division of Purchases and Supply
This cannot be too different.
From VA. Spec. No. 220-42-010
Revised November 7, 2003
05-04-2005
#18
O RLY
Hey! Look At Me!! I'm a Supporting Member!!
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Age: 44
Posts: 10,031
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rep Power: 376
Originally Posted by thefivespeeder
Under part 'E. Certifications', #2 states: "The Manufacturer shall have the traffic lidar unit tested by an NIST recognized third party testing organization, such as the University of California Lidar Test Laboratory, for compliance with these specifications. A current certified test report (i.e. within the immediate past 12 months) shall be submitted upon reqest by the DPS."
DPS = Division of Purchases and Supply
This cannot be too different.
From VA. Spec. No. 220-42-010
Revised November 7, 2003
DPS = Division of Purchases and Supply
This cannot be too different.
From VA. Spec. No. 220-42-010
Revised November 7, 2003
now my question is, is that california law?
Thread
Thread Starter
Honda Civic Forum
Replies
Last Post
ChrisHandHonda
10th Generation Civic 2016-2021
26
09-25-2015 11:28 PM
Touge
Canada East
0
09-23-2015 10:51 PM
Touge
Ottawa
0
09-22-2015 11:58 PM
Touge
Canada East
0
09-01-2015 11:25 PM
