I’m a firefighter, and coming home after a shift, a cop pulls me over in town and gives me a ticket, 52mph in a construction zone. I ask, very politely if he’s sure he got me right, given that I have never paid a speeding ticket in 12 years of driving, and, well, I wasn’t going that fast, especially in the town i work for. He informs me that his “Talon Radar” is 99. 8% effective. I didn’t argue with him, as he had stripes.
Well the ink wasn’t dry on the ticket before he informed my shift captain. I heard about it next shift, and it wasn’t pleasant.
Since I never admitted guilt, can a cop do this?
Is Talon radar that accurate?
I’m probably going to go to court to plead No Contest, and just pay the fine and my first points on my license. I simply refuse to accept that I was speeding. Unfortunately, if I contest the ticket, the entire Fire Department will hear about it, including the Fire chief, who will give me a lecture on how important it is for Fire to have good relations with police and how I’ve just pissed of the police department, and how I’m going to be on his shitlist for awhile because I am putting myself above the interests of the group and so on.
But I’ll be damned if I’ll accept guilt on this one.
Seems to go against “professional courtesy”. Not saying it’s right or wrong, but I thought cops didn’t ordinarily give tickets to firemen, EMTs, and other civil servants, except in extrordinary circumstances. Also, I’m assuming the construction speed was 45 MPH. (NEPA is going through a construction blitz, with several 45 MPH construction zones. YMPHMV) If this is the case, 7 MPH falls well within the “traditional grace” of 10 MPH over, afforded the common motorist. Do you know the issuing officer? Would he have a reason to have it out for you? Could he have had a bad day? Maybe your shift captain and his shift captain can arrange for him not to show up at the hearing, should you plead not guilty?
Careful. In THIS thread I was told that letting another cop off on speeding was the same as being corrupt. :rolleyes:
I’m a little confused by the officers statement about the radar being 99.8% accurate. I’ve never read a radar manual that used a percentage. They all indicated it was accurate +/- 2mph.
Still, I’m confused why the officer would make a statement like that.
In most states there are open record laws. In Wisconsin you can find out if someone got pinched even before they’re convicted.
Something is a little fishy here. But it’s probably not the ticket in itself. The cops actions afterwards are a little strange.
Not saying you should not fight the ticket in court, but is this one battle not worth fighting?
Pleading no contest should not corrupt your personal values. Pleading not guilty knowing the cop will not show up in court is another avenue. (If the cop does show up, especially with you in mind, that should trigger alarm bells.) Why not pay the ticket and allow the issue to die a quiet death. Then do some homework on police/fire relations in your neck of the woods, the cop in particular, Talon radar, whether the cop’s approach to tattle on you was a good move on his part (Strategic move? Department policy?), and have a long off-the-record conversation with the shift captain.
There may be other issues involved here and you just happen to be the symptom and not the problem.
Radar speed measuring devices are generally quite accurate. It’s also typical for the officer to testify that the one used was calibrated recently. It’s how they are used that often results in incorrect readings. Operator error is not rare, but it’s damn hard to prove, and of course no one ever thinks they used it improperly.
It’s the part about notifying your supervisor that bothers me. You were driving home, in your own car I’ll presume, not on company time. I realize wearing a uniform means you are ALWAYS on in some areas, but this seems to cross the line. Is it common practice, where you are, for every alleged moving violation to be reported to the supervisors? How did he know you were FD, anyway?
I have no background in this area, but purely on a fairness scale, what is happening is just absurd (both the cop AND your supervisor). You were going 7 miles over the speed limit and now you are a sub-par fireman? Where’s the connection so strong to make those two ends meet? This is, just simply absurd. I can understand if you were going 15 or 20 over, because that shows disregard for the speed limit, 7 miles over shows you were at least going with the flow of traffic for the most part. You need to snicker at the thought of this even becoming remotely an issue and just pay the ticket and walk away pleasantly astounded at the whole ordeal.
Unbelievable that the cop would call you in for going 7 over. (If the supervisors really cared, they would do periodical scans on all their men… If the police cheifs really cared, they would automatically report every infraction in an electrical system of sorts, right?) If I were your fire supervisor, I would have told the cop to quit wasting my time calling me about such a petty issue, and that he should find something better to do than try to smear another civil servants’ name over a minor infraction.
I’m not sure if there is a difference between notifying your boss when you’ve been charged versus when you’ve been convicted, but it isn’t illegal for the police to notify your boss (or for your employer to request your records) if you fall into any of the 14 exceptions listed in the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. A copy of it is here: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/2721.html
Anecdotally, certain kinds of work will require employees to notify their employers when they earn a ticket, even if it’s in their own car, on their own time. My dad’s a freight train engineer, and though driving a Dodge and driving a train aren’t really analogous, his employers will revoke his engineer’s license if he’s a reckless driver on his own time. I think it’s about liability.