Police officer's estimate good enough for speeding ticket | The Col...

Gong forward, car manufacturers should have an option that provides a built in camera that is aimed to include your speedometer within the picture and come with a built in hard drive for the video to be recorded..then we can just take the video to court to prove how ridiculous this ruling is!

are you kidding me. what's next.

This is probably the worst decision any court could make, guilty based on an observation. No evidence, just his word against mine. The police officer is trained to estimate speed? How? Maybe by going between two fixed locations. That would require a stop watch. Too much room for abuse, since all jurisdictions need more revenue. The bottom line is to drive under the speed limit at all times. Then they will judge you are going too slow and fine you for that. I see this being challenged in court, I hope!!!

That's crap! What about officer Chris Thomas, of the Gahanna Police Department, who was convicted of speeding, because he was doing 149mph on his motorcycle? He was able to get his job back, but he shouldn't have. How can someone, namely a police officer, judge someone's speed when they can't even make a good judgment on their own?

So the Arizona law is being fought because it's "profiling" but isn't this about the same thing? You can be pulled over for speeding visually and, oh look, I found drugs or open containers. I'm confused where our laws are headed. So I guess the OSHP can sell their airplanes and radar guns. Just get a good pair of glasses.

I'm way out here in California and I can smell this...it's one of the most assinine decisions I've ever heard of in my 70 plus years. I guess if we "normal" citizens just continue to complain only to each other, then we have no complaints as our individual rights continue to be stripped away....And I thought we had idiots out here!!!
I'm wondering who put the "stupids" in charge of this world?

as a vet of this country , folks the free world and our system is doomed!, whats next the cop thinks he saw you rob a bank?? do you people think he was PROVEN guilty<?> with out a dout!!! CRAP

"...experienced in making such estimations, sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant's speed..."

Do they think their dealing with geniuses?

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!!!

The cops couldn't stand behind home plate and tell how fast a ball was going at a little league game. This is the stupidest decision I have heard in a long while. And, a lawsuit waiting to happen...

AAAAHHHHHHG :\

ACE_ wrote:

<quoted text>
LISTEN FOLKS WHEN THE PATROLMAN PICKS YOU UP YOU TELL HIM THAT YOU HAD YOUR CRUISE CONTROL SET AT WHATEVER THE SPEED LIMIT IS WHERE YOU GOT PICKED UP. NOT 1 MPH OVER. MANY COPS AND ESPECIALLY STATE PATROL HAVE THEIR MICROPHONES RECORDING WHAT YOU SAY.
I AM TELLING YOU THIS BECAUSE I KNOW!! good luck

or you can say my granny is giving birth to quintuplets at the barn and I'm trying to get there super fast. just because you say a lie and it gets recorded doesn't mean you'll get out of a ticket

Then why have radar guns? A waste of money. And to make even more money any cop can estimate your speed and rack up the fines for the city.

This is ridiculous. Give the officer a test and see if he can correctly estimate the speed and also what is his accuracy?±5, 10, 15, 20 mph?

Cops are now going to lie and stop whomever they like and say that they visually could tell that the person was speeding giving them probable cause to search their car. Time to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lie detectors are not accurate enough but a cop is? What a bunch of idiots we have for Supreme Court Justices in this state.

okay, first let me stipulate that I think a visual estimation of speed is NOT sufficient to ticket someone, but let me then go on to say that all of you who are saying that it isn't possible to judge speed visually are either not thinking very hard or don't know math very well. you CAN estimate the speed at which something is traveling:
In order to determine how fast an object is going, you measure the time it takes to cover a given distance, using the equation

d = vt

where:

•d is the distance
•v is the speed or velocity
•t is the time covered
•vt is v times t

Of course an estimation may have to be made for the given distance, but it is possible.

I disagree with the courts decision. If the officer does not have perfect vision (20/20) how can a ticket be justified? It gives the officer the ability to pick and choose based on his/her perception. Also, it opens the door to profiling particular types of vehicles or drivers by sex or national origin.

Wow. Now this is creative thinking. They really need more of our money and will now get it. An alternative to raising taxes for the time being I suppose...

Can't this be tested? Perhaps on a closed track with several cars going at different speeds, with the officer guessing how fast the car is going? Hell, if he's 85% accurate, i'll give it to him.

As a former(retired) LEO I'm amazed at this decision. I had many officers that couldn't even estimate how long their lunch break was.Seriously this is a grossly bad decision. It is possible many times to tell if someone is grossly speeding but how can you write a citation for that. You need facts based on established scientific devices. It can be as simple as timing someone over a known distance or laser,radar.

I see the Ohio government budget problems have reached the Supremes. What better way to get a tax increase?

NOW...do you have enough reasons to MOVE OUT OF OHIO?

What makes the whole charade even more heinous is that the severity of the penalties is based in part on the speed of the violation.

1 mph can be the difference between misdemeanor or felony, keep your license or ride the bus, jail or freedom.'Estimated' speed is not good enough!

Next, they won't post the speed limit. You'll have to estimate what it is.

Also no more speedometers. You'll have to estimate your own speed.