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17 Responses to “This definitely looks illegal”

1. Veeshir Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 9:56 am

   I don’t think that’s new.
   I was in traffic court once, in NY I think, when a cop testified that he had been in a speed-estimating training class less than 6 months earlier.

   I don’t know if I like it, but that was in the 80s, so it’s not new.
   It might be new in Ohio though, I guess.

2. bob r Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 11:02 am

   It may not be “new” and it might be “legal” but it will _definitely_ result in something illegal if it is ever applied to me.

3. anon Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 11:06 am

   Driving a red sports car is probable cause too.

4. John Smith Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 11:19 am

   The magic 8 ball told me you were speeding.

5. Jeb Texas Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 11:20 am

   I rode with the Austin PD back in the early 80’s. After a very few rides, I learned to guess speed to +/- 3 MPH. Not hard to do at all.

6. Matt Groom Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 11:35 am

   Guilt by fiat. You’re guilty because we SAY you’re guilty. So much for that whole “burden of proof” thing.

7. ParatrooperJJ Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 11:54 am

   At leat in the SW Ohio area, most cops are opposed to this idea. They think it highly unprofessional. Hopefully, we will get a law passed soon to outlaw the practice.

8. Buffboy Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 1:36 pm

   Hate to break this to you but this is standard practice in radar training. I estimate speed before I trigger the radar. It’s part of the training. After a while you get pretty good at it. I’m rarely off by more than a couple MPH while stationary or while moving. I’m not in any way special in this. In fact to get “trainer” certification for radar you have to actually demonstrate this in the field and not not be off more than 2MPH +/- in over 90% of your scenarios.

9. Some Law Talking Guy Says:
   June 4th, 2010 at 2:16 pm

   It’s not hard to do. You pick two stationary objects at a known distance from each other on the side of the road, then apply simple math to come up with how many seconds it would take to travel between the two objects at various speeds. Police have been doing this for many years.

10. Stormy Dragon Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    In fact to get “trainer” certification for radar you have to actually demonstrate this in the field and not not be off more than 2MPH +/- in over 90% of your scenarios.

    So you’re saying that if we banned the estimates, we’d be letting 9 guilty men go free rather than convict 1 innocent man unjustly?

11. Mikee Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    The argument one should be making is not how the speeding tickets are judged, but rather what exactly the local speed limits are meant to accomplish.

    When the purpose of the speed limits is to generate revenues rather than maintain safety on public thoroughfares, how the speed tickets are settled in court comes in as a far second compared to the primary injustice.

12. Mike Gallo Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 2:51 pm

    Wow. So now cops have bionic calibrated speedy-eye technology? I can estimate how much I’ve got in a beaker, but I would be a fuck-up of a chemist if I used that to run my reactions. This situation is no different; cops are getting lazy and the establishment is backing them up.

13. Bobby Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    Don’t give a damn how hard it may or may not be, This is America. ITS NOT PROOF. Its hearsay.

14. Diomed Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    Ohio’s an authoritarian police state?

    This isn’t news.

15. Heather Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 6:46 pm

    Yeah, the problem isn’t whether or not we think they can accurately estimate speed. The problem is whether or not we believe that everyone will always be honest and never lie about it.

16. Old Doctor Weasel Says:
    June 5th, 2010 at 11:42 am

    @14 Diomed: Growing up in Michigan, I always thought so.

17. straightarrow Says:
    June 7th, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    I once had a cop accuse me of speeding through a residential area. He covered three blocks while I went one. I was in second gear and idling.

    It was his third time to try this bullshit on me. I was 17, but I had had enough. I told him to get out of his car, I was going to whip his ass. He said, “I have a gun”. I said “Draw it, Stell.” He couldn’t sittin his car, and he knew I was going to fuck him up if he tried to get out. He ended up trying to sell me tickets to the Policemans’ Circus. But he quit fucking with me after that.

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