Law-Forums.org

[hyun-su]

So a friend and I were driving home from thanksgiving when we reached a small town. The speed limit went down from 70 to 65 to 55 then to 45. I have a gps so i used that for my speed instead of my speedometer. So i know i was going the speed i say i was. I slowed down to 47 but realized the car next to me was going a lot slower. so I slowed down to about 37 but then saw the speed limit change to 45 then to 55. So I went 55 about to go to 65 when I saw the lights in my mirror. I pulled over and waited for him to pass but sure enough I was the one being pulled over.

So he pulled my friend and I over not knowing we knew each other. Different states on plates. He tells me that I was going 50 in a 35 when I know that my GPS said I was going 47. So I tell him that he's not right. So he tells me I was going 48. He then tells my friend that he was going 53 and I was going 47. That was right for me but my friend was following me. And 6 MPH is a big difference when following someone.

I know the law. It's not an excuse to not see the sign but I wasn't going 50. If I mention the inconsistencies and NOT the actual speeds the cop said can I win? Because I'm fighting against going 50. So if I can prove that I can win right? I just wanna show the cop a lesson in lying about the speeds people were going. My friend can testify against the cop for me as a witness. And I wanna testify against the cop for my friend as well.

[burdett]

Your GPS is not as good a measure of speed as a radar or lydar. Did the cop use those or was he pacing you for speed? Civilian GPS has a certain level of inaccuracy deliberately built into it, and it may not poll the signal often enough to give as accurate a speed readout as you think (depending on particular model and such).

Either way, you'll probably lose. If the courtroom is close, just go in and ask the judge for leniency. They usually grant it as long as your record isn't cluttered with tickets. If it's not close, just pay the ticket. It's not really worth the time and effort. I know you feel emotional about this, but weigh the value of your time against the value of the ticket.

[gabrielo19]

Your job would be to show the officer had a mistake in their estimation or there was a problem with the equipment they used. You admit here you were going 47, therefore you were speeding and you will likely be found guilty.

[sebastiano53]

GPS speed is not going to be accepted in court over whatever the cop used to gauge your speed. If I believed GPS speed my Honda Ridgeline truck is capable of 240 MPH.

[corcoran42]

So, let me get this straight. Your plan is to get out of a ticket for going 50 in a 35 by claiming you were actually doing 47 in a 35?

Well, good luck with that plan. Oh, the officer will have documentation showing the calibration of his radar, and how accurate it is. Make sure you bring all your documentation on how accurate your GPS device is. Most commercial GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters, and GPS drift is not consistent from reading to reading -- meaning that your true position could be 15 meters north of true on one reading, and 15 meters south of true on a second reading. In such a case, you could get an inaccurately fast or slow speed calculation from the device.

Basically, you're wrong on the law, and you're wrong on the technology.

[cruz50]

So you're willing to stipulate that you were speeding, yet you want a judge to dismiss speeding charges against you. You think that a judge is going to accept your GPS (a very imprecise technology compared to radar) over a sworn officer's testimony? You think that three miles an hour isn't well within the margin of error expected? You think 47 in a 35 mile zone should be OK because the police were off by three MPH?

And you think that two defendants, hoping to avoid separate penalties, will impress a judge by corroborating each other's stories. Do you think that two murder defendants would be released because they backed each other's story up?

You say you know the law, but it seems to me you are in for a legal beating.

Pay the fines. Move on with your life.

[jerard]

If you come to court with a computerized record of what your speed was, and an expert to testify to the accuracy of the Garmin, I think you have a good case, Otherwise, it is your word against the officer who either used a certified speedometer or other certified timing method like radar to judge your speed. The Police are not always right, but they always have better speed timing equipment, and better expertise in using it in Court testimony. Besides, 47 mph is still 12 mph over the speed limit, so when you argue that point, you are admitting guilt.

[zadok]

It's hard to just say "the cop was wrong" in traffic court. You need evidence. I don't think you have that kind of evidence so I wouldn't bother with this defense.

You might be able to go with a speed trap defense. Some states have laws about speed limits. You can't have the speed limit change from 65 to 25 in a short distance for example. That's not reasonable. You would need to do some research for the area where you got the ticket to see if this might work for you.

And to the people who are saying civilian GPS is innaccurate by design you need to get with the times. That was a long time ago when the US Government would deliberately make GPS less accurate for non-military users. I think they stopped doing that some time in the mid 1990's. It's all the same stuff these days.. in fact it's more accurate than ever with the A-GPS technologies.

[curney13]

Since he changed the speed he said you guys were going like five times, you can go to the court date and argue your case. Or if you don't have time for that you can take a few hours out of your trip and visit the police station personally and file a complaint. The worst that can happen is that you have to pay the ticket. The best that can happen is that you don't pay the ticket, the cop gets fired and nobody ever deals with the jerk again. At least you can give it a shot.

EDIT: since your friend was pacing you, was he checking his speedometer at all? If so he can claim how fast you were going.