Need some advice...is this LEGAL??

[DigitalCancer]

Ok, so i was going to Arkansas (don't make fun) to visit the family this week and on my way i drove through Illinois. I was traveling down US-57 and was coming up on a few over-pass type bridges, when i see this guy standing up top (can only see his head for a sec), i think nothing of it, then he raises up and i see a 'radio' in his hand.
Then i remember a friend at work telling me of a speed trap around Illinois on his way to missourri once. ******! They marked me, so, i slow down a bit and the cop comes up behind me sure enough. Stops me, i get a speeding violation. Speed limit was 65, i was doing about 72 or so...i was marked for 78! I don't argue with her or anything i just wanted her outta my way so i could hurry up and get to my destination. So i just take it and say thank you and everything (she was fairly nice about it).

My question is, is this even legal?? Hiding out on a bridge and jumping up to mark me for a car on the ground??? Should i fight this or just take it? I mean, i wasn't doing 78, i don't know what they were using to clock me, maybe they got the car next to me? It was passing me, lol. Please, any insight would be most helpful as i've gotta clean record, never had a speeding ticket before.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

One possibility is that your spedometer is inaccurate at that speed. This could be due to something like larger tires than the stock size.

 

[Linflas]

Why would it not be legal?

 

[eits]

yeah, it's legal. in some places, they have police planes/helicopters flying over highways and they do the same thing the cop on the bridge did.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Perfectly Legal. The Police can stand wherever they want to hide. Why would you think otherwise


However, if you would have been smart, and wanted to contest the ticket. You could have asked for the speedometer so you could mark down the model nuimber and asked some quesions about calibratrion.

 

[DigitalCancer]

Originally posted by: Linflas
Why would it not be legal?

I know here in arkansas, police cars cannot be obstructed by buildings or signs (altho they can be un-marked vehicles). So i should just pay the ticket and get it over with? No chance of getting out of it?

 

[DigitalCancer]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
Perfectly Legal. The Police can stand wherever they want to hide. Why would you think otherwise


However, if you would have been smart, and wanted to contest the ticket. You could have asked for the speedometer so you could mark down the model nuimber and asked some quesions about calibratrion.

but they didn't do radar. On the paper is marked as 'marked'.

 

[leftyman]

It sucks, but thats one of the ways they catch you...Summer holidays are big for traffic enforcement.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
Perfectly Legal. The Police can stand wherever they want to hide. Why would you think otherwise


However, if you would have been smart, and wanted to contest the ticket. You could have asked for the speedometer so you could mark down the model nuimber and asked some quesions about calibratrion.

:thumbsup: ask next time!

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: leftyman
It sucks, but thats one of the ways they catch you...Summer holidays are big for traffic enforcement.

On our drive from VA to MI we saw probably 40 police cars with radar guns out. I made sure to stay under the speed limit the entire drive. The worst state was Ohio, they had state police everywhere.

 

[Mellman]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: leftyman
It sucks, but thats one of the ways they catch you...Summer holidays are big for traffic enforcement.

On our drive from VA to MI we saw probably 40 police cars with radar guns out. I made sure to stay under the speed limit the entire drive. The worst state was Ohio, they had state police everywhere.

my parents went to the beach this week, they said on their way to NC from VA, they saw a cop car at every single one of those 'hideout' places on the side of the highway. But they only saw one of them have a cop in it

 

[alien42]

there is a chance that it is not legal. in georgia there are several laws that the cops have to abide by when using radar. one of them is that they must be visible for a certain distance (something like 500 ft) and they can not get you around a blind corner if you can not see them.

 

[DigitalCancer]

Originally posted by: alien42
there is a chance that it is not legal. in georgia there are several laws that the cops have to abide by when using radar. one of them is that they must be visible for a certain distance (something like 500 ft) and they can not get you around a blind corner if you can not see them.

thats the way it is in arkansas. See, i could see this guy, but not until the last second and didn't notice any radar gun in his hand, he was wearing all black. only way i knew it was a cop was when the radio went up AND the fact that my friend at work had told me about it. This was my first time driving through here though so i wasn't sure exactly which place he was talking about and i was tired after driving for about 5hrs so far.

 

[Roguestar]

Jesus christ just pay the goddamn fine. You were by your own admission over the speed limit. Nice case you got there.

Originally posted by: alien42
there is a chance that it is not legal. in georgia there are several laws that the cops have to abide by when using radar. one of them is that they must be visible for a certain distance (something like 500 ft) and they can not get you around a blind corner if you can not see them.

omg there might be a way out of this injustice!

but wait

Originally posted by: DigitalCancer
See, i could see this guy,

Shucks.

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
You could have asked for the speedometer so you could mark down the model nuimber and asked some quesions about calibratrion.

Also, they're not obliged to show you the radar gun at all.

 

[Uppsala9496]

It is legal in Illinois. My brother got a similar ticket back in 1998 on his way home from school.
I've also seen it on other highways in Illinois (I290, 53, I355, I55, I294, etc.) closer to Chicago.

 

[RagingBITCH]

pwn3d

 

[dmcowen674]

Never heard it called "Marking" before but it normally called "Pacing".

They use a fixed point that you pass and then literaly count "One One thousand, two one thousand etc" till you pass second fixed reference marker (That's where they get "Marked" from) and divide by the speed limit. The difference between what you should pass the "Mark" and what they got for you is how they got 78.

You normally see white horizontal lines before and after bridge overpasses is where typical "Pacing" areas are set up for speed traps.

That being said you admitted to going at least 10 mph over the posted speed limit you knew about so you don't have much to fight.

If they dinged you for 68 in a 65 and you were doing 65 or under that would be a different story.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
Jesus christ just pay the goddamn fine. You were by your own admission over the speed limit. Nice case you got there.

Do you drive at exactly the speed limit, granny?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: Roguestar
Jesus christ just pay the goddamn fine. You were by your own admission over the speed limit. Nice case you got there.

Do you drive at exactly the speed limit, granny?

That has nothing to do with it...the OP admitted that he was speeding. You can't go to court and tell the judge "Yes yer honor, I was speeding, but not as much as the cop sez."
Unless he can contest the entire "I was speeding" part of the ticket, he's screwed. Does it suck that cops "play dirty" and hide in order to catch you? Yup, but that's part of "the game"...MANY states make hiding and running radar illegal, and a lot of places won't allow this "marking" from a place like a bridge where perception can seriously alter the alleged speed, but not all...especially in jurisdictions that are cash-crazy and consider tickets to be just a revenue source...

 

[DigitalCancer]

no i was going 10mph over...i though the speed limit was still 70mph (as it is all the way down the road i go, except for this part evidently where its 65mph) i was doing 72, so i THOUGHT i was going 2mph over. =/

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Never heard it called "Marking" before but it normally called "Pacing".

They use a fixed point that you pass and then literaly count "One One thousand, two one thousand etc" till you pass second fixed reference marker (That's where they get "Marked" from) and divide by the speed limit. The difference between what you should pass the "Mark" and what they got for you is how they got 78.

You normally see white horizontal lines before and after bridge overpasses is where typical "Pacing" areas are set up for speed traps.

That being said you admitted to going at least 10 mph over the posted speed limit you knew about so you don't have much to fight.

If they dinged you for 68 in a 65 and you were doing 65 or under that would be a different story.

I'm normally one to say stop trying to weasel out of it and pay the damn fine, but that seems kind of messed up. According to the OP he was not going 10+ over, but 7 (72MPH in a 65). If I were him I would fight it. At the least if he can't get it thrown out he should only have to pay the fine for going 7 over, not 13.

EDIT: But I guess you'd have to go to an Illinois court or whatever to fight it, so you might have to just grit your teeth and pay it.

 

[DigitalCancer]

Yea, i called the court just now and she said anything under 20mph is $95 so, wouldn't really do me any good to try and fight it, especially since its legal to do that ****** in IL. =/

 

[zerocool1]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
Perfectly Legal. The Police can stand wherever they want to hide. Why would you think otherwise


However, if you would have been smart, and wanted to contest the ticket. You could have asked for the speedometer so you could mark down the model nuimber and asked some quesions about calibratrion.

what do you ask them about calibration?

 

[zeruty]

Originally posted by: zerocool1

what do you ask them about calibration?

http://www.tipmra.com/

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
That has nothing to do with it...the OP admitted that he was speeding. You can't go to court and tell the judge "Yes yer honor, I was speeding, but not as much as the cop sez."
Unless he can contest the entire "I was speeding" part of the ticket, he's screwed. Does it suck that cops "play dirty" and hide in order to catch you? Yup, but that's part of "the game"...MANY states make hiding and running radar illegal, and a lot of places won't allow this "marking" from a place like a bridge where perception can seriously alter the alleged speed, but not all...especially in jurisdictions that are cash-crazy and consider tickets to be just a revenue source...

The OP said he was doing 72. He thinks he was mistakingly ticketed for the guy next to him that was passing him. 72 in a 65 is actually fairly average as some states have laws that say you can't ticket for 5 over (although 72 is 7 over, the point there is it's close).

Roguestar was going on like a saint when most people speed. Heck, I don't know what to do on one section of Rt 17 that I drive on. It goes from 65 to 55, but no one slows down. Not even the cops. I went down to 60 at one point and a cop just flies by me with no lights on. It's not like I can make an excuse if I get pulled over, "Well I saw a police officer doing 65, why can't I?"