OH LEOs can now ticket purely on estimate of speed

[86 IROC-Z]

Thought you guys might be interested in this.

Seems unjust in my opinion.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's highest court has ruled that a person may be convicted of speeding purely if it looked to a police officer that the motorist was going too fast.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an officer's visual estimation of speed is enough to support a conviction if the officer is trained, certified by a training academy, and experienced in watching for speeders. The court's 5-1 decision says independent verification of a driver's speed is not necessary.

The court upheld a lower court's ruling against a driver who challenged a speeding conviction that had been based on testimony from police officer in Copley, 25 miles south of Cleveland. The officer said it appeared to him that the man was driving too fast.

http://www.local12.com/news/state/st...Cw.cspx?rss=31

[KahanaReef]

I wonder if they are talking about high speed. Not just say 5 or so over.

Like doing 40 in a 25 is obvious and I think it would be easy for anyone to make that call. But, doing 30 in a 25 not so much.

[86 IROC-Z]

I wonder if they are talking about high speed. Not just say 5 or so over.

Like doing 40 in a 25 is obvious and I think it would be easy for anyone to make that call. But, doing 30 in a 25 not so much.

I completely agree that in obvious situations it's warranted.

However I feel that it has the possibility to be taken advantage of if a person can be ticketed, or even just pulled over, based only on the judgment of another human (the LEO), as that judgment could be swayed by the opinions or disposition of the officer. I know this happens anyway, but I feel that these sort of laws will increase the ability of power to be abused.

[1MileCrash]

yeah i don't like this. it's individually subjective rather than empirical. some vehicles provide a tendency for an individual to believe that they are traveling faster than they actually are. at the same time i don't think that this law will be around for very long. it'll be challenged and revoked.

[KahanaReef]

I don't think it will be around for very long either. People are going to be fighting this left and right and any money they think they can bring in with tickets, will get eaten up in court costs.

I know if I received a ticket on an educated guesstimate... I'd fight it if I thought I wasn't going as fast as the citation said I was

[Smkn_TA]

Radar guns only go to 999 so leo's estimate my actual speed all the time. yup and fact

[INMY01TA]

Doesn't sound good.

[Nhra Firebird]

I completely agree that in obvious situations it's warranted.

However I feel that it has the possibility to be taken advantage of if a person can be ticketed, or even just pulled over, based only on the judgment of another human (the LEO), as that judgment could be swayed by the opinions or disposition of the officer. I know this happens anyway, but I feel that these sort of laws will increase the ability of power to be abused.

Even if a cop said he used radar or vascar how can you really prove you weren't speeding. The police can still take advantage of a person if they want.

[INMY01TA]

Even if a cop said he used radar or vascar how can you really prove you weren't speeding. The police can still take advantage of a person if they want.

Prove you weren't speeding? The burden of proof is supposed to be on them. Coming to court with no evidence just saying "he appeared to be speeding" is BS. I guess if it's like 100mph in a 35 zone then ya but that would be reckless driving. If some cop says I was going 47 in a 40mph zone I'm callin BS.

[pecha]

I believe in CA it was already the law. CHPs have training in estimating speed visually and they can ticket you for that.

[Nhra Firebird]

Prove you weren't speeding? The burden of proof is supposed to be on them. Coming to court with no evidence just saying "he appeared to be speeding" is BS. I guess if it's like 100mph in a 35 zone then ya but that would be reckless driving. If some cop says I was going 47 in a 40mph zone I'm callin BS.

I'm saying if a cop wants to make something up he could with his radar gun or vascar... If i cop wants to be a dick he is going to be a dick one way or another.

[INMY01TA]

I'm saying if a cop wants to make something up he could with his radar gun or vascar... If i cop wants to be a dick he is going to be a dick one way or another.

Yes I know but whenever I've been to court the judges usually give the defendant the benefit of the doubt.

[allbaugh_04]

Gay, I don't like it.

[Nhra Firebird]

Yes I know but whenever I've been to court the judges usually give the defendant the benefit of the doubt.

Really? I have never been to court, but I would have thought they would favor the police.

[pajeff02]

Even if a cop said he used radar or vascar how can you really prove you weren't speeding. The police can still take advantage of a person if they want.

Agree. In our jurisdiction, calling a police officer a liar is a very poor defense.

[third_shift|studios]

Fuck!

[5.0THIS]

Umm... this is nothing new. This has been in practice in many places for quite some time. And it's not like the officers are just taking a shot in the dark. They're trained and certified, and in order to get that certification have to pass tests and guess a car's speed within a certain degree of error.

[Nhra Firebird]

Fuck!

You might be ok.... Ever hear of flying low to be under the radar?

[SeVeReDiStOrTiOn]

They don't use visual estimation to write speeding tickets. So the police officer can't say "it looked like he was going 62 in a 45 so I wrote the ticket for 62"...doesn't work like that. It can be used to meet one of the moving violations to get a wreckless or use it for an unsafe for conditions...stuff like that.

[Transamws6]

Thought you guys might be interested in this.

Seems unjust in my opinion.



http://www.local12.com/news/state/st...Cw.cspx?rss=31

This to me, seems similar to "exhibition of speed", which I was stopped for a couple weeks back. Pretty stupid idea IMHO, I hope it's dropped.