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Smart Phone Gets Driver Out of a Speeding Ticket

Posted by Roblimo on from the buckle-your-seatbelt-and-turn-on-your-GPS dept.

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Sahas Katta writes in Skattertech that a traffic cop pulled him over while driving home and gave him a speeding ticket but thanks to his Android, he ended up walking out of traffic court without having to pay a fine or adding a single point to his record. "I fortunately happened to have Google Tracks running when an officer cited me for speeding while heading back home from a friend's place," writes Katta. "The speed limit in the area was a mere 25 miles per hour and the cop's radar gun shockingly clocked me driving over 40 miles per hour." Once in court Katta asked the officer the last time he attended radar gun training, when the device was last calibrated, or the unit's model number — none of which the officer could answer. "I then presented my time stamped GPS data with details about my average moving speed and maximum speed during my short drive home. Both numbers were well within the posted speed limits," says Katta. "The judge took a moment and declared that I was not guilty, but he had an unusual statement that followed. To avoid any misinterpretations about his ruling, he chose to clarify his decision by citing the lack of evidence on the officer's part. He mentioned that he was not familiar enough with GPS technology to make a decision based on my evidence, but I can't help but imagine that it was an important factor.""

9 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. The smart phone got him off? by BrowserCapsGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Guy gets a ticket, goes to court dressed respectfully, treats the judge with deference, geeks out to a clueless judge about his nifty new GPS toy, asks the cop something he heard a previous defendant's lawyer ask about lack of evidence that worked, and is found not guilty. The judge goes out of his way to note the GPS evidence played no part in the decision. How is this a story about a smart phone getting someone out of a ticket?

    --
    Alright! I know I'm in there! If I don't come out, I'll have to come in after me!
    1. Re:The smart phone got him off? by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its a story about how no judge is going to establish a precedent wherein evidence not under the court's or police department's control will be admitted. Its the same sort of hissy fit they throw when you video some cop doing dirt [slashdot.org].

      Or it's a story about a judge who is presented evidence that could very well be fabricated but didn't need it so ruled as he would have ruled anyway and ignored the piece of information which would then have to be vetted, analyzed and contested by expert witnesses.

      "Your honor I wasn't speeding because I had the particular Radar Gun re-calibrated by a certified repair facility and it was 15mph fast. Also I have tinfoil underwear which gives me the illusion of looking like I'm moving faster than I am."
      "I dismiss the speeding ticket against you... but I do so ignoring the claim about your underwear."
      "OMG IT WAS THE UNDERWEAR!"

    2. Re:The smart phone got him off? by shaitand · · Score: 5, Informative

      The GPS is irrelevant. There are legal requirements for radar training and gun calibration. This is the standard way to get out of a speeding ticket. You know the whole innocent until proven guilty and the burden of proof is on the state thing.

    3. Re:The smart phone got him off? by LVWolfman · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I went through a similar thing here in Las Vegas about ten years ago when I was working a paper route. I was driving a '92 Buick, sitting in the left turn lane of a major intersection at about 4AM. I sat through three complete cycles of the traffic lights without ever getting a left turn green light.

      I had four choices:
      1. Wait until the intersection was clear and safe and then carefully make my left turn.
      2. Go straight on the green light for straight, but doing so from the wrong lane.
      3. Back up to where I could get in the proper lane, but breaking the laws regarding reversing more than 150 feet on a public roadway or breaking the law regarding changing lanes within 150 feet of an intersection.
      4. Abandon my vehicle and find a pay phone to call 311 (non-emergency police number) for advice and to report the malfunctioning signal.

      I chose option one. Cross traffic was stopped as my direction had a green light for straight ahead.

      Of course, there was a police office sitting in traffic to my right, who promptly hit the lights and sirens as I turned and pulled me over.

      "I can't believe that you did that in front of me!" he yelled.
      I explained what happened, he handed me a ticket for making an illegal turn and failing to obey a traffic control device, telling me to "Tell it to the judge."

      It took me three appearances at the courthouse before I could see a judge just for the arraignment AND I had to pay bail BEFORE the arraignment because I was pleading not guilty.

      When I gave the judge my plea, he called me to the bench and offered to convert it to a no point parking ticket. I refused and told him "I'm not guilty your honor, taking the deal would be admitting guilt."

      He sighed and said "Ok, I'm not supposed to hear testimony at an arraignment but tell me your story".
      I did.
      He then said "And you want me to make a ruling regarding which was the proper choice? You're not getting from me. CASE DISMISSED!"

      He then told me quietly, "I'd have done the same thing in your situation."

      Yes, it cost me more in time off than the fine would have been, but it was the principle of the thing. Plus I really wanted a judge to rule on the situation.

  2. Clocked at 40? KM/hr perhaps... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    25 MPH happens to be approximately 40KMH.

    Me thinks the cop was incompetent or malicious and had the setting on Metric....

    Do police radar allow you to choose units?

    (Imperial police should not use metric units)

  3. My judge throws these out automatically by Mad-cat · · Score: 4, Informative

    If an officer testifying in my jurisdiction's traffic court can't say when they were trained in radar, when their radar was calibrated, and what model of radar they use, the citation is automatically dismissed. I have certifications for all three of those that I present in evidence immediately after giving general testimony. The smart phone is completely irrelevant to this case.

    Essentially, lacking the predicate to introduce the radar into evidence, the officer was saying "he was speeding because I said so, and therefore I wrote him a ticket." Of course the judge threw it out.

  4. Racket by cdn-programmer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You participated in a racket and were ripped off and now you are proud? Its clowns like you who don't fight that encourage them to continue the racket.

    I had my car towed across the street once... a construction crew wanted to dig up my side. I have no problem with that. What I didn't like was the ticket for parking in the no parking zone. The issue is the no parking zone showed up probably at 7 am in the morning after I left.

    You better believe I fought them! racket. Ont he way home from winning (for the wrong reasons... racket remember) I met my neighbor who had also been parked. I asked him why he didn't get a ticket. He said he did and he paid it.

    Its people like my neighbor who encourage this abuse by paying.

    Rule of thumb. Fight ALL tickets. Never allow them to profit from the racket and we'll hopefully get the racket more under control.

    1. Re:Racket by Andy+Smith · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've mentioned this incident a couple of times on Slashdot so apologies to anyone who has read it before.

      I was given a ticket for driving in an incorrectly-marked bus lane. The police officers knew it wasn't marked correctly, but they had been orderd to give tickets to everyone. Months later I received a threat of a court summons, or I could pay a fine. A lawyer advised me to just pay the fine. Why? If I didn't then I'd have to go to court TWICE in a city hundreds of miles away, which would cost a couple of hundred £££, and in the unlikely event that I won I wouldn't be able to recover expenses. And, the worst part, because it was the police that had issued the ticket instead of the council, I would get a criminal record. After all the research I had done, and my lawyer's advice, I was sure that the court would rule against me, and I couldn't risk the criminal record.

      Yes it's a racket. Yes I'm ashamed that I didn't fight it. But I was scared that a criminal record would prevent me from working abroad.

      Motoring fines have very little to do with justice or upholding the law. They have become a revenue source for governments desperate to create the illusion of low taxes.

  5. Re:Phone got him off -- Judge avoided precedent by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd say his evidence was clear enough,

    Really? I use Google Tracks on my cycling trip to work. I typically come to a full stop for about 10-40seconds at 2 red lights during my half an hour commute, and average about 25km/h moving speed. Yet when I look back on the graph of my speed vs distance traveled the graph never shows that I come to a stop, only that I've slowed down. I've also got a hill on the way to work. My record going down this hill is 56km/h for a few seconds according to my bike trip computer. Google Tracks never shows me as having reached 50 on that same trip.

    Was my bike computer mis-calibrated? Unlikely since the last 200km bike trip Google Tracks and my bike computer both showed the total distance traveled to be within 1% of each other. So I ask you, do you think that time averaged samples of speeding data is evidence to be used against a specific point sample?