Any Police Officers or people with traffic knowledge here?

[BLACK6PACK]

In florida you go in front of th magistrate first, not the judge, its the magistrates job to weed out all the tickets so as to not bog down the courts with tickets (broward county alone will issue more than 900,000 tickets a year). I've fought every ticket I've gotten down here. I plead no contest, pay court costs and get no points on my license. Better than paying $150 for a ticket and getting points.

 

[cougarcat]

Same kinda deal here in Ga. I got a small speeding ticket, figured I'd just show up and see if I could get it lowered or reduced. So after taking a half day off, getting dressed up, waiting forever, etc. the magistrate comes in and as your name is called you stand and say guilty or not-guilty. Your only choices she says. If you say guilty go around the corner and pay the fine. If not-guilty you stay and then they set a new court date & send a summons to the officer who wrote the citation?????!?!!!????!?? DAMN! If I would have known that I wouldn't have wasted the time in the first place. Just a heads up on the local revenue generation system.

 

[KEVINS]

Originally posted by V6DVette
OK sorry guys. Just found out it doesn't work.oh well

CORRECT, THIS DOESN'T WORK..

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/ticket.asp

KS

 

[TurboJunky]

Doesn't anyone take responsibility for getting busted when they're obviously in the wrong?

 

[striker_29]

Originally posted by TT/A1233
Doesn't anyone take responsibility for getting busted when they're obviously in the wrong?

Got pulled about a yr ago for speeding and nailed for 77 in a 60. My drivers license had expired a week prior so I got a ticket for that too Wasnt even going to attempt to fight it.

But I see your point. A lot of these threads lately, and not just this board. I figure my deal was kinda like if the teacher overlooked a question you got wrong on the test, they would just let it be a freebie

 

[WakkoSS]

Originally posted by TT/A1233
Doesn't anyone take responsibility for getting busted when they're obviously in the wrong?

And no, cops can't do it either. If they're on their way to an urgent call it can be justified, but that's it. The "Hot and Fresh" light on at the Krispy Kreme doesn't justify an "urgent call" either.

 

[n20junkie]

if all te rest of scum can get a lawyer and get out of charges a whole lot more serious than this, then i am going to use the system also, and do you think that traffic tickets help a whole lot, they are the biggest thing in the country for one thing, and safety isn;t it, its a revenue generator, plain and simple, when things get tight the pressure is on to write more tickets, i towed cars for years and ate breakfast with the country sherrifs and local guys, they said it was BS, but their hands were forced, going fast in the left lane isn;t dangerous, but going 10 mph under the speed limit in the right lane is, but guess who gets the ticket, thats my beef
Grant

 

[gn85]

Originally posted by striker_29


But I see your point. A lot of these threads lately, and not just this board. I figure my deal was kinda like if the teacher overlooked a question you got wrong on the test, they would just let it be a freebie

Sometimes the teacher overlooks a question or two on purpose. Depends on the student. Just take it as a freebie and keep your mouth shut.

 

[wlaukaitis]

I think in some driving schools they refer to that as "Off Road Recovery"

What if some dude stops because there is a turtle in the street, he stops. Are you going to stand on the brakes and hope you stop in time? Nah, you are going to swing to the right and go "Off Road" and recover.

I don't know if that will help you at all.

 

[TurboJunky]

I can tell you this regarding the accusation that tickets are noting but a revenue generator;

It may have been in your neck of the woods. Maybe YOUR local/county guys got a free toaster for writing more than 50 a month, or bonuses. I'm not sure as a "street cop" there's "pressure" or some sort of influence to write them to generate CASH!

Would you prefer a caning instead of $ penalty or points? What gets someone's attention more than hitting them in the pocketbook. You have a better suggestion?

In my part of the woods our separate station commanders want to see an EXTREMELY low # of tickets issued and it has NOTHING to do with $, here's why. They want to see you doing your job and last I knew it was part of a cop's job to write tickets. Quotas are illegal and we can't be disciplined for not attaining a certain number weekly/monthly. They could care one iota if you write big $ tickets, fix-it tickets, parking tickets...it doesn't matter. They don't care if you write 20 and reduce/dismiss them at court to keep driving records clean.

Sorry to say but SAFETY does matter and it makes a difference if you sit in construction zones, or other problematic areas. People slow down, fewer crashes, fewer injuries and the taxpayers like to see the people they employ doing their job. I don't speed, rarely ever do and rarely ever have. I've never been stopped for speeding and most likely won't.

 

[n20junkie]

if mearly reducing speeds saved lives then we should be the safest country in the world and germany should be the most dangerous as far as driving is concerned, but its not true, what is true is that no matter what the speed if everyone is going the same speed there is no issue, and in countrys other than ours its more of a violation to be in the wrong lane as fasr as speed is concerned than it is to be speeding, the police forces take no bull, and concentrate on stuff other than people riding the shoulder, becasue although there rules are strict, they practice common sense, but ask anyone what happens to someone that gets mouthy or is a DUI in germany, the politzi don't mess around, mabe my time overthere has my view of how the states treat their highways, but i can say that mabe your state doesn't have quotas, mabe they are illegal, but i can tell when its the end of a fiscal quarter cause speed traps are all over the place, and military recruiters don't have quotas either, but if they don't bring in enough people, they might need some retraining.
Grant

 

[xlr8ngn]

The fine revenue goes into the general budget, but believe me they track where that money comes from. It keeps the municipalities wheels nice and greasy in and around Atlanta. It is my personal belief that crimes need more attention than speed traps. If officers investigate crimes more, then more crimes will be solved and more criminals will be punished. If those same officers are running radar or laser more instead, then more speeding tickets are written and more hard working people are fined for "speeding" and less crimes are solved. I am not for a free-for-all on the roads but lets get real, the roads are engineered for much higher speeds than the typical posted speed limit.

 

[WakkoSS]

And a large portion of arrests stem from traffic. Cops can't always be investigators. So let's say you see a car do a violation and you pull it over. Turns out, the car has a pound of cocaine in it. Suddenly THAT'S a good piece of policework. If there was no cocaine, than it's the cops harassing the hardworking public.

Yes, the roads can definitely handle higher speeds. If everyone was an excellent driver, we'd have higher speed limits. But around here, we have certain folks that like to drive 50 on the interstate...and it's legal. If the speed limit was 80, you'd legally have a 30 mph difference in motorists...that's huge!!! We're not even taking into consideration that some cars are improperly maintained (20 psi in SUV tires, etc) and some people aren't paying attention and others are DUI.

Traffic enforcement isn't popular, but it sure is necessary.

 

[1of1547]

Originally posted by gn85
I've gone to court before, had the cop not show up and people STILL plead guilty. The judge CLEARLY told everyone in the courtroom what their rights were with the cop not there. People were still pleading guilty. The judge was even asking them... ARE YOU SURE???????

People that dumb deserve the ticket!

Hey I was one of the dumb people. On my last ticket the cop didn't show. So you had two choices reschedule or plead guilty. I plead guilty on she lowered the fine and dropped one point. She didn't let anybody off completely, but she did reduce everybodies fines and points. She was not very happy with the people who rescheduled. And I hope that they didn't go nack in front of her. I have a feeling that it would not of been pretty.

 

[GARY HARVEY]

It's a $ thing.

Locate a GOOD lawyer, have him alter the charges against you with your failure to show up on your trail date. Post Bond, this will give the court what it wants ($). This will prolong the insanity for months AND give the attorney something (a different charge) to plead your case to. You get to pay the bond and the court dismisses the other charges, the court gets the $'s they are after and you go down the road, never to pass on the right AGAIN, you criminal you. And hopefully everybody is a happy camper.

Now comes the hard part... find a lawyer that at one time used to be a prosecutor in the court(s) you will be attending, because I bet you don't know an understanding judge and thats the reason you are paying him anyway.

I've done this more than once and the cost was less than a B. Franklin (in my cases).