Speeding ticket in Vermont - fight or not?

you have no idea what youre talking about. police work isnt what you see on tv. the average police department in the US is 25 sworn officers. 25 officers is a small town. a 25 officer town does not have armed robberies every night, domestics every hour, or fights/shootings weekly. in a 25-man department you would MAYBE see one shooting throughout your career, MAYBE a couple armed robberies depending on the town your work in (i.e. shithole, or wealthy), so this leaves a lot of time for the officers to initiate their own calls for service. stopping cars for speed, checking disabled vehicles, enforcing inspection requirements, installing child car-seats, writing reports, teaching classes, observing compliance of liquor licensed sites in town, following up/interviewing for cases detectives are working, giving helmets to kids riding bikes that dont have them, providing ride-alongs with people in the comunity so they can see first hand what goes on, and the list goes on and on. there are MANY things cops do that you CANT see, and dont even think about, which is evident when you make such arrogant remarks. like we dont earn our $15/hr to possibly not go home to our families at the end of the night.

 

You're right. Every cop should be persuing actual crimes and not be stationary in a speed trap.

File IFR just tapped out.... next batter please.

 

i dont know about alot of you guys but, if i know im right and i wasnt going that fast i would fight it. i know its alot of time and its a risk but i would do it. i have had a ticket in vermont and i fought it and the cop never showed up. It was a similar situation. Alot of time the officer wont show up cause of being called to a accident or somthing. The calibration of the radar gun i have heard alot about people using that and winning. but hey do what you think is best.......

 

My argument is that posting up to check for speeding cars is a waste of time and tax payer money. You'd have less speeding if you were just driving around the town. This can be observed by watching a cop enter ANY street, the cars immediately slow to at or most of the time below the speed limit. trapping people is just money.

 

I'm more worried about the people eating food/doing make up/texting and just old people in general then speeders

 

radar detectors are only illegal in some states. very few. texas not being one of them thank goodness. they greatly reduce the chance that a cop will catch you off guard, not to mention when they are popping someone else with radar, and im not paying attention to my speed, I slow down before i get clocked. mine has saved me from a ticket so many times. I am not one of these people that think they are perfect though. I still keep my eyes open and look, especially for the cop on a bridge with a lidar gun. I had a state trooper sneak up on me once when i was out of town on a remote road. I was hauling trying to get home and thought i should just slow down. The next think i know my radar was blaring and at full strength. He snuck up behind me and flipped on his radar. Luckily the speed shown on my radar detector at first clock was only 5 over, so he didnt bother with me. LESSON LEARNED! I always keep my eyes peeled now. Texas State Troopers are very good at what they do...

edit. by the way, how long have you been a cop? i applied here, but its hard to get in.

 

I didnt see your post, so I'll answer now.

A stationary cop is focusing on one field of view, its very limited. The most unsafe thing I experience driving is the slam of the brakes when cars see a stationary cop. I would argue that it makes the roadway more hazardous.

 

people are breaking laws while breaking laws. stop someone for going 15 mph over, or crossing the yellow line, which are not great big deals, but the driver turns out to be drunk, or carrying 5lbs of cocaine, or (in timothy mcvay's case, who was caught when on a traffic stop) has a warrant for blowing up buildings and killing a bunch of people. chances are, if youre just speeding, or just getting tired, we can get you a soda to wake up, or let you go with a warning as its OUR discretion. and the goal is to fix problems, not create them.

 

We're in very different sections of the country, I've never observed any of what you're describing as far as fixing problems. I wont lump you in with my perception of police because it's really not a very good one at all.

 

I would tend to agree. not paying attention while driving is an collision waiting to happen. although this time of year 10km/h can be the difference between stopping safely and rear ending the vehicle in front of you.

 

i am a dispatcher, but its not as hard to get in as a police officer up here as we dont have civil service. NH still has one of the best retirements for public safety as well. i will say, that it is MUCH harder to get hired as a full time fire fighter in NH, as there arent many jobs being a small state. fire fighters also have it alot better than cops, being in dispatch, i realize it every day

 

You guys carry soda around, I'm tired after I leave work at 530 am I wish our cops had soda I pass one going back to the station every morning after night shift

 

dont carry it around, but would make it a point to stop and grab one for someone who is falling asleep driving, or help them call someone to come pick them up. that is dangerous shit dude, could kill yourself driving while youre exhausted.

 

You ever go fishing ? Do you catch all the fish ?

The fallacy of the excluded middle. Both things are simultaneously true. The officer is protecting society by collecting money.


OP : If you want to save money, you'll probably need to show up. Note - you won't just be saving the cost on the ticket - your insurance will almost certainly go up because of this. An extra 20-30 bucks a month for a couple years will add up.

Personally, I'd fight it. I've had success just showing up, and cutting a deal with the DA. Talk to a couple lawyers in that jurisdiction and see what they say.

 

Do you mean something like murder? I'm surprised since you live in Cali..where we have more collision fatalities than murders. But, hey, we'll listen to your wisdom and drive around, that should help.

 

This does not apply to the point I was making. I wasn't making the claim that a moving patrol catches all of the speeders therefore a stationary post catches none.

 

That's why the cop cars have radios there is nothing to fold up and put away drop it in gear and head out. There is not too much more boring then doing radar most often it is by request of local people maybe you would rather have them ride around and hope they are on the right side of town when some thing happens.

 

Here is where I think your argument fails. There is not always crime occurring in a jurisdiction, so that cop posting up to bleed wallets by writing speeding tickets is actually doing more work than he would be if he was sitting back at the office waiting for a call about a crime and has a better chance of enforcing laws than just driving around and hoping he stumbles across a serial killer.

Another example-I'm a SAR pilot but I don't fly around looking for a people to rescue, I've got a job that I do at my desk while I wait for a call to come in. Is that a waste of money?? Cause it's no different...

I'd also like to see your data backing up that moving patrol is a better deterrent.

 

I would suck it up and pay it. I agree with a lot of the other guys in that how many times over the last 15 years that you have been going too fast and not been caught? Yin for the yang as a couple people have stated.

Also how much would that ticket have been in Mass?

 

You will likely lose if you fight it although, if you otherwise have a good driving record you may get it reduced. That said if everyone who got a speeding ticket disputed it in court the police would have little choice but to rethink the way they do business.