Drivers in ohio, beware

S

stanny

Member
a law passed recently that says that if it "appears" that you are speeding, you can get pulled over and ticketed. no need for a radar gun anymore, just a cops "visual estimation". personally, i think its bullshit. if this law stands, what else other laws will change to favor a cop's decision? and don't think they wont use it, i drove to the store today and i saw a cop sitting on the side of the road with his window open, just looking down the road with no radar gun or anything. i dont see how anyone can think this is a fair law

here is a link to an article about it http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/03/ohio.spotting.speeders.ruling/

discuss
 
Oh children, please use your brains a bit.

This law isn't going to be used for police estimating you going 27 in a 25 speed zone. This will be used for people who are flying through a 25 zone at 50.

How many times have you looked at a car and thought, "woah, that guy is hauling ass!" You didn't have a radar, but it was obvious that they were speeding. That is what this law is for.

For years, police have been able to use "pacing". Where they can estimate a cars speed, by comparing it to their own speed. If a cop is going down the interstate at 65, and all of a sudden a car comes up way too quick on his bumper before he realizes it's a cop, it's a safe bet that the guy behind him was speeding, and can get a ticket.
 
I was about to leave an angry message when your post enlightened me, thank you. I was thinking exactly like what you first said, them picking people up barely going over the speed limit just based off perception.
 
i see where your coming from but i disagree. nobody is perfect and a cop could easily misinterpret a speed and you get fucked because of their judgement. it just favors the cop wayyyy too much. also i think its kinda dumb that cops can just make speed traps without using a radar gun. they are starting to do that because like i said i saw a cop today in an obvious speed trap position staring down the road without a radar gun.
 
Let me guess, you think all cops are pigs, and you think "fuck tha police" is a motto to live by?

Just because a cop is sitting along side the road doesn't mean he's looking to pull you over. Maybe he was eating lunch, or finishing paperwork from an old call, or on the phone? Or maybe he was sitting on the side of the road, waiting for his shift to end.

Like I said, this isn't for guessing 2 or 3 mph, it's for giving someone a ticket when they don't have their radar available.

If you need me to give you more examples, I can. But just focus really hard use your little undeveloped brain for a quick second.
 
You're kind of being a dick unnecessarily. It's true that sometimes cops do that kind of thing (i.e. wait for their shift to end on the side of the road), but if that's the case, then they're not really doing their job either. I get where you're coming from, but this law still relies on the judgment of a human being's perception, whether it be accurate or not, of speed. This law has numerous problems, and I don't agree with it at all.

By the way, I'm not one that thinks cops are pigs, and goes around saying "fuck tha police". Cops provide a valuable and necessary service, but they're not human radar guns. Anyway, in most court cases, they need to be able to prove incontrovertibly that you were speeding, and at which exact speed you were going.So my advice to those in Ohio would be to ask the cop when you're pulled over how he measured your speed, and if he says he estimated, challenge your ticket, it will almost surely be dismissed if you do a little legal research.
 
no, i do not think all cops are pigs and "fuck tha police" is not a motto that i live by. the cop that was on the side of the road was clearly looking for speeders. you don't park in the grass behind some bushes in a position that makes it easy to quickly pull into the road to eat lunch or finish your papers. would you be understanding if a cop pulled you over and said " sir, it appeared to me that you were going about 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, im gonna have to give you a ticket." lemme know when you find someone that would not be angry by that.
 
There's an easy way to avoid being pulled over when speeding that most American teenagers would never think of. Dress like an old person. Seems silly right? Well there are so many horrible and wreckless old people driving yet they don't get pulled over. The law fears the old folks.
 
:post fail:

It feels as if I'm talking to a brick wall.

THIS LAW IS NOT FOR OFFICERS LOOKING TO PULL PEOPLE OVER FOR SPEEDING.

This law is for situations where a cop sees someone obviously speeding, but does not have access to a radar.

Say a cop is on the side of the road, reading a call that was just sent to his MDC, and a car goes by at approximately 80 miles per hour in a 45 zone. Before the law was enacted, the officer had no ability to pull the person and give them a ticket. Obviously the person was breaking the law, and deserved one.

Now with this law, that person WILL get a ticket, even though they weren't caught on radar.

If a cop is out looking for speeders, they will use their radar or some other acceptable way. (airplanes, timing, etc)

And as far as qualified to guess the speed, I'd say cops are quite qualified. Many, many times a day, cops get to look at a car, decide if it looks like it's speeding or not, and then confirm it with the radar.

That's like saying a pro skier isn't allowed to judge the size of a jump, just because they don't have a tape measure. If a pro hits hundreds (thousands?) of jumps a year, they would be pretty damn good at estimated the size. Especially if their estimate has to decide wether it's 30' jump or a 55' jump.
 
there is still human error though, no matter how much you do something, you are never going to be perfect at it. is a cop better than me at predicting the speed of a car? of course, but that doesn't mean that they know how fast i am going based on what they see. there are just too many things that aren't being fair to the average driver.

about your scenario about the car going by at 80 in a 45 zone while the cop is on the side of the road- why cant the cop simply pull onto the road and catch up to the speeder and use pacing to pull him over?
 
so basically every cop that sees a car that looks fast and thinks "fucking punk kids" will now be pulling them over for going about 20 mph over or so. i'm pissed, i already get pulled over for bullshit stuff all i need now is pa to pass some shit like this.
 
So if you blew by a cop at 80, and then saw him pull out after you, would you just keep driving 80? Or would you slow down to the speed limit?

 
sorry, my comment was directed at OP and his "pull out and and pace them" reply.

Should have quoted.
 
Ok, great. The intention of the law makes complete sense. They should be able to pull someone over who is blatantly disregarding the speed limit.

Now let's talk about reality. This just gives another loophole for cops to profile people and pull them over. Do you honestly believe that cops won't exercise this option if it's readily available to them? They have a fail-safe excuse for pulling someone over, saying they saw them speeding. Rather than the burden of proof being on law enforcement and the prosecution, this law basically puts the burden of proof on the accused. As someone who grew up in a small town in Ohio, I know the cops there already disregard the law in many ways. This new law just gives them more room to do as they please.
 
Well first off, if you blow by a cop at 80 miles an hour, A. you don't see him or her, in which case you won't slow down when they pull out because you don't know that they are there, or B. you are a dumbass and will probably break a minor traffic law that will give them the chance to pull you over anyways.
 
You realize that in most states the police can already do this, right?

In most states, police can use visual estimates to pull someone over, and then issue a citation for reckless driving or something similar to that without having a direct radar readout.

Solution? Drive the speedlimit or at a very close proximity.

True story. When I was between the ages of 17 and 21 I got speeding tickets left and right. I got pulled over a ton and paid a large chunk of change to the local municipalities and states. Then, I changed my driving habits and stopped speeding around like I owned the road as my own personal race track. And guess what? I haven't gotten pulled over in over 3 years.
 
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