Interesting little website here...

https://www.speedtrap.org

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Curious, if you don't mind saying, what did the attorney and any other cost (traffic school, etc.) add up to?

The attorney's fee was about $250. The driving school was about $50 or $100, I cannot recall now. The court costs will be about $80, so I am out somewhere in the neighborhood of $400. The fine for reckless driving could have equaled or exceeded that, and then I would have a mark on my record that could cause my insurance to skyrocket or even be canceled. And if I had been forced to travel to the court, several times, the costs would have been in the thousands. All things considered, the attorney fee and driving course were a bargain.

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
Tigerdore,

My daughter, with MO plates by the way, was caught going over 80 on the highway in VA - I posted about this last year.

If the speed limit is 70 and your going 80, it is considered reckless driving, a criminal offense, and can be up to 1 year in jail and/or $1000 fine.

We hired an attorney and had our first court date. We sent a copy of my daughters clean DMV report to the attorney and the judge agreed to drop the charge to 79mph provided that at her upcoming 5/11/17 court date; a) we produce another clean MO DMV report, b) she produces a completion of 25 hours of community service letter, c) we pay court costs and fines.

We went this route because if you just pay the fine, she would have a criminal record.

When interviewing attornies via telephone, I asked all of them if this ridiculously punitive measure was a vestige of when the speed limit was 55mph as then 80mph or higher would have been 25mph over the limit. The answer was "no" from all of them.

Sounds like revenue generation system for the attornies and court system to me as 10mph over is considered "normal" in most areas of the country.

The county for your court was more "friendly" than my daughters. She had to:

1) Judge wanted copy of her clean driving record,
2) then said if she kept it clean for 4 months, plus took a safe driving course, do 25 hours of community service, she would render her decision,
3) 4 months later she produced a new clean copy of her driving record plus the course and community service.
4) the Judge dropped her ticket down from 86 in a 70 to 79 in a 70,
5) the costs were: a) $500 attorney, b) $50 for the safe driving course, c) ~$65 court costs, d) ~$150 speeding fine.

We did all this to avoid her having a criminal record for a simple speeding ticket.

^^^

I've said it here and another thread or two. Don't speed in VA, it's not worth it. A lot of states it's a go fast tax, not here.

Glad you got off easy Tiger, I'm pretty sure just the fine for conviction would have been at or exceeded $500.00.

AS a Policeman for thirty + years all I can say is that I find these speed traps to be despicable. To those that man them I say if you wanted to be a Revenue Agent then that's what you should have signed up for. Stop fleecing the American public.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
AS a Policeman for thirty + years all I can say is that I find these speed traps to be despicable. To those that man them I say if you wanted to be a Revenue Agent then that's what you should have signed up for. Stop fleecing the American public.

Amen.


I'm glad you got a satisfactory conclusion.

I agree with the others, I use traffic stops mainly as a way to interact with the public. I'm polite, courteous, and try to use the opportunity to give the motoring public a positive contact with law enforcement. In the last 3 days I've made at least 20 traffic stops. 16 were "thank you for your cooperation, please take care of the issue when you can, have a nice evening, and please call us if you see anything strange going on in your neighborhood". The other four included tickets for no insurance, driving during revocation, felony warrants, or felony drugs found in the car...that had no insurance and a revoked driver behind the wheel.

Even those, I tried to make it as positive as I could.

Add in the 6 or 7 wreck reports I did in the last 3 days. The only one that was charged with anything was the one that was driving drunk and we had to pull out of his burning car. IF he lives, maybe he will show up to court.

Real po-lice don't need radar. That's been my mantra for 10 years.

Fairfax County in northern Virginia has got to be the worst for this type of horseshit. Freshman year of college I got pulled over the weekend after New Year's when I was home from college visiting my parents. Written a ticket for 19mph over the limit, the maximum without a mandatory court appearance.

No way to fight it, travel time, gas and lost school would cost me more than the ticket. Three of my friends and the son of one of my dad's coworkers all got pulled over and written for 19mph that same weekend in Fairfax County. The one thing we all had in common, window stickers from the universities we were attending on our cars.

Coincidence?

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
AS a Policeman for thirty + years all I can say is that I find these speed traps to be despicable. To those that man them I say if you wanted to be a Revenue Agent then that's what you should have signed up for. Stop fleecing the American public.

I agree.

If I write a ticket, and I don't write many, it is because you were driving with your head up your ass... and risking people's safety. Or you caused an accident. Or it was my PC to stop you and take the dope or other illegal items off you and your scumbag lawyer can't get you off on a technicality.

Did the ticketing officer show up for court?

Newport Delaware has a speed trap on (state route) DE-141. I jumped on the highway at 9pm, eager to get to I-95 and head for home. This stretch of highway is 3 lanes x 2, it's late so ZERO traffic, a little downhill, but 50 MPH ...

BANG, I'm nailed. The officer didn't even get close enough to see my eyes. I could have been drunk. Took my IDs, came back with a ticket. The next day, in their shabby "city hall", I run into the same officer. He says, with a smile, that fighting it doesn't work out too well, as the officer is always present. Better to pay the $221 fine "But it doesn't add points, so there is nothing on your record", he helpfully explains.

What a racket.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:
Update as requested. After several re-schedulings, My case was finally heard yesterday. It was dismissed completely. I have to pay about $80 in court costs, but no ticket and no mar on my driving record. I hate their speeding trap game, but I am very glad to have come out with this result.

That is great to read. It is important to protect your driving record.

HK Ag

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
Did the ticketing officer show up for court?

Yes he did show up. According to my attorney, the officer's account verified that I was respectful; that I shook his hand and thanked him for serving after he handed me the ticket. The attorney said that probably made a difference with the judge.



.

I make it simple and just avoid Virginia.

It's income generation, plain and simple. But they take it step beyond tickets, now it's fees, attorneys, etc.

The Commonwealth of VA needs more $$$ for it's coffers, more agencies to govern, more taxes to fleece from the subjects.

Don't miss it at all.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
I make it simple and just avoid Virginia.

It's income generation, plain and simple. But they take it step beyond tickets, now it's fees, attorneys, etc.

The Commonwealth of VA needs more $$$ for it's coffers, more agencies to govern, more taxes to fleece from the subjects.

Don't miss it at all.

and NY and NJ.

You probably met this guy.... in 1972, I did!

Worse than the money and time it cost us for my daughters ticket, now if you google her name there is a website that says for the publics interest, it posts such things.

For instance it will show she was charged with reckless driving but does not provide the final result, simple speeding per all the nonsense she had to go through. I then checked the BBB and this "public service" website has a "F" as it won't take anything down, update anything, that is unless you pay their "extortion fee". In other words only if you pay them money will they take my daughters name off of their website.

In addition it apparently in the past used to publish the full name, address, date of birth/age, and all other kinds of personal info.

Was my daughter speeding in VA, "yes", but their Draconian system of anything 10 or more mph over the 70 mph limit is labeled as a criminal offense of reckless driving. So now my daughter has a "google reputation" that we paid a great deal of money to an attorney and VA that has been fixed but we are now subject to a private company extorting more money from us.

The website is atlas public records at:

http://atlaspublicrecords.com/

The link to the BBB website as to Atlas Public Records is:

https://www.bbb.org/phoenix/bu...tsdale-az-1000038026

Just read some of the comments on the BBB website and let me know if you can think of anything I can do besides paying the "bribe". Note I already emailed them about 2 weeks ago and they've not replied.

Tigerdore I hope Atlas doesn't publish your VA reckless driving ticket too.

As a cop, I hated the speeding ticket game. It was simply singling out someone who was speeding faster than other people speeding. And the argument that speeding causes crashes? Actually it was speed and failing to control that caused the crash.
So I set a "standard" of when I would cite an other wise legal driver:
Divided or limited access highway: 20 over.
Rural areas: 15 over.
Secondary or city streets, depending on residential / business density: 15 over.
Residential streets: 10 over.
School zones: (with kids and or bus present) 5 over.
And I had no shortage of customers. And 80 MPH on a freeway, absent of any other aggravating circumstance is not reckless driving.

quote:

Originally posted by billnchristy:
I got 4 tickets in 5 years in VA. One of them was for 57 in a 55.

That's insane.

quote:

NY and NJ.

Don't know about NY, but in NJ any Title 39 statute fines went to the state. the town made little from it. In fact it pretty much cost them money.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
As a cop, I hated the speeding ticket game. It was simply singling out someone who was speeding faster than other people speeding. And the argument that speeding causes crashes? Actually it was speed and failing to control that caused the crash.
So I set a "standard" of when I would cite an other wise legal driver:
Divided or limited access highway: 20 over.
Rural areas: 15 over.
Secondary or city streets, depending on residential / business density: 15 over.
Residential streets: 10 over.
School zones: (with kids and or bus present) 5 over.
And I had no shortage of customers. And 80 MPH on a freeway, absent of any other aggravating circumstance is not reckless driving.

I have never written anyone for speeding but if I did your formula is the one I would use.

Not in Virginia, but a little town we dispatch for is all about speeding tickets. I've heard of them written for two over. HOWEVER, they write them as civil citations that are paid directly to the town. And there is no hearing process. Failure to pay will get you a warrant for failure to pay a citation. It's extortion plain and simple.