Speeding Ticket Defences.txt

			Speeding Ticket Notes

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Explain:

 - Explain to Judge that the officer never specified / provided any info on how he obtained my speed;
   Therefore my due process rights were violated because I was not able to prepare anadequate defence.
   
   * Due process: Requirement that courts respect all legal rights owed to people *

 - I believe I was going the speed limit or most likely 5 over, I cannot recall.
 - I was going down a hill & gained a bit of speed accidently & didn't realize.
 - The car isn't mine & I was barrowing it & I'm not used to it etc. Didn't realize how fast I was going.
 - I was alone at night on a empty road & had nothing to gage my speed with.
 - My speedometer wasn't accurate.
 - Officer made up excusses to search my car for no reason & said he had indications that he didn't.

 - I'm young, a student, don't have much money, etc.

Question:

 - Question if device was properly calibrated the same day of use.
 - Ask about the angle of deflection (If radar was used)
	* Ask if it may have been picking up a different objects speed.
 - 

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1 - Officer doesn't show up to court. / Continuing the case until the officer doesn't show up.

Theres a likely chance the officer won't show up to court; 
They have more important duties / situations to attend to.
Case will be dismissed apon imminent succession.

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2 - Trial by Written Declaration

# https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/tr200.pdf
# https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/tr205.pdf

2a - Trial De Novo (After "Trial by Written Declaration" if you don't like the results.)

States That Allow Trial by Written Declaration:
California, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, & Wyoming.

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3 - No indication on the ticket of what speed measuring device obtained your speed.

Go to the judge & explain to them how there is no
indication on how the officer obtained your speed, &
therefore your due process rights were violated because
you were not able to prepare anadequate defence.

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4 - Challanging their Radar gun.

The radar gun needs to be calibrated every day, or
it could be off. Speeding tickets are based on the 
calibration of the device. supposed to use tuning 
forks each day to calibrate the radar.

4a - Angle of Deflection

Radar guns NEED to clock speed when the vehicle is DIRECTLY
in front / behind for a possibly accurate speed reading.
Cosine Effect Error applies to both radar & lidar guns.

In court ask the officer what their angle of deflection was exactly.

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Speed Radar

Lots of speeding tickets involve the use of radar measurement systems because it's generally a reliable and 
straightforward method for measuring vehicle speed. However, despite their general reliability, radar devices aren't infallible.
How Do Police Radars Work?

The word "radar" is an acronym for "Radio Detection and Ranging." In simple terms, radar uses radio waves 
reflected off a moving object to determine its speed. With police radar, that moving object is your car. 
Radar units generate the waves with a transmitter. When they bounce back off your car, they are picked up 
and amplified by a receiver so they can be analyzed. The analysis is then reflected in a speed-readout device. 
Radar systems use radio waves similar to those involved in AM and FM radio transmissions, but with a higher 
frequency—up to 24 billion waves per second as compared to one million per second for AM radio.

> Two Types of Radar Used by Police >>

Typically, the radars police use are one of two types: car-mounted units that can be operated while the officer's 
vehicle is stationary or moving and hand-held radar "guns."

> Car-Mounted Units >>

Most radar units used in patrol vehicles are shaped something like a side-mounted spotlight. 
They are usually mounted on the rear left window of the police car facing toward the rear. 
The officer reads your speed on a small console mounted on or under the dash. The unit has a 
digital readout that displays the highest speed read during the second or two your vehicle passes through the beam.

Most modern police radar units can also operate in a "moving mode," allowing the officer to 
determine a vehicle's speed even though the officer's own patrol vehicle is moving.

> Hand-Held Radar Units >>

Hand-held radar guns are most often used by motorcycle officers. Radar guns use a trigger system. 
So, the officer just pulls the trigger when he or she wants to measure a vehicle's speed.

> When Radar Becomes Inaccurate >>

Most radar errors result from the radar's operation in real-world conditions, which are often far 
less than ideal. And, of course, human error can also cause radar devices to fail.

> More Than One Car Is Speeding >>

Radar beams are similar to flashlight beams—the farther the beam travels, the more it spreads out. 
And this simple fact often results in bad speed readings because a spread-out beam can hit two 
vehicles in adjacent lanes (or that are otherwise near each other).

In other words, if you're in one lane and a faster vehicle is in another, the other vehicle will 
produce a higher reading on the officer's radar unit, which the officer may mistakenly attribute to you.

Most radar units have a beam angle, or spread, of 12 to 16 degrees. So, the beam width will be about 
two lanes wide (approximately 40 feet) at a distance of only 160 feet from the radar gun.

The inability of the equipment to distinguish between two separate objects is called "a lack of resolution."

A few factors can make this kind of error more likely. Resolution problems are more likely to occur if 
the other vehicle is larger than yours simply because the other vehicle has a greater surface area. 
And, automatic radar units (or those set to automatic mode) tend to produce this type of error more 
frequently than units that the officer manually turns on and off such as with a trigger system.

> Wind, Rain, and Particles in the Air >>

Although metal reflects radar beams better than most surfaces, pretty much any material will reflect 
radar waves to some extent. In fact, on windy days, windblown dust or even tree leaves can be picked up by radar devices. 
The same is true of rain, snow, and the like. Sometimes these spurious readings can be attributed to your vehicle.

Pre-thunderstorm atmospheric electrical charges can also interfere with a radar unit. This interference occurs when 
electrically charged storm clouds reflect a bad signal back to the radar unit even though they are high in the sky. 
If such a storm cloud is traveling at a sufficient speed, a false radar reading can result.

> Radar Calibration Problems >>

Every scientific instrument used for measuring needs to be regularly calibrated to ensure its accuracy. 
Radar equipment is no exception. It must be checked for accuracy against an object traveling at a known (not radar-determined) speed.

Calibration of a radar unit typically involves using a tuning fork as the moving object. 
Tuning forks are supplied by the manufacturer of the radar equipment and certified to correspond 
to the speed marked on the fork. According to most operation manuals, a radar unit should be calibrated
with the tuning forks before and after every shift. Ideally, several tuning forks vibrating at 
different speeds should be used to check the radar unit's accuracy.

It is time-consuming to use a tuning fork as a calibration device. So a second—but far less accurate—method 
has been developed to check the accuracy of radar units. This second method is a "calibrate" or "test" 
switch built into the radar unit itself. The unit reads a signal generated by an internal frequency-generating 
device called a "crystal." The resulting number is supposed to correlate with a certain predetermined speed. 
Unfortunately, these internal calibrating systems don't work as well as they're supposed to.

> Are Radar Detectors Illegal? >>

No discussion of radar would be complete without a few words on the technology of radar detectors—little 
black boxes that consist of a sensitive radio receiver adjusted to pick up signals in the radar frequency range. 
Many of the commercially available detectors have a sensitivity control that can be adjusted to give the best 
compromise between trying to detect even faint, far-away police radar signals and attempting to screen out 
off-frequency signals that come from sources other than police radar.

In some states, radar detectors are illegal. And federal regulations generally prohibit commercial drivers from using radar detectors.

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5 - Does the officer have their valid: 
certification, documentation, work orders (assoscieted with the lasar device)

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6 - Visual Estimation of speed

- Ask if the officer went through training, and how long ago was their training.
- What type of certification they obtained, and can they provide the proof they have it.
- 

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7 - Pacing

Many speeding tickets result from the police officer following or "pacing" a suspected speeder and using
his or her own speedometer to estimate the suspect's speed.

> How Pacing Works >>

With this technique, the officer must maintain a constant distance between the police vehicle and the 
suspect's car long enough to make a reasonably accurate estimate of its speed.

Some states have rules requiring the officer to verify speed by pacing over a certain distance. 
(For example, at least one-eighth or one-fourth of a mile.) In practice—even in states that don't require 
pacing over a minimum distance—most traffic officers will usually try to follow you for a reasonable distance 
to increase the effectiveness of their testimony, should you contest the ticket.

> How Pacing Fails >>

The accuracy of pacing depends on the officer's ability to maintain a constant distance from the target vehicle. 
So any facts that might prevent the officer from doing so can lead to an inaccurate speed estimate. 
For example, where an officer is a long way back from the target vehicle, it's more difficult to maintain a constant distance. 
Hill, curves, and traffic can also make it hard for the officer to keep a constant following distance and lead to an inaccurate speed estimate. 

Uncalibrated speedometer, officers operate random vehicles a lot and never check to calibrate.

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7 - VASCAR

Most states allow police officers to catch speeders using a technology called VASCAR ("Visual Average Speed Computer and Recorder"). 
VASCAR is basically a stopwatch coupled electronically with a calculator. The calculator divides the distance the target vehicle 
travels (as recorded by the stopwatch) by the time it took to travel that distance.

> How VASCAR Works >>

VASCAR is not like a radar or laser gun, which gives a readout of a vehicle's speed by simply pointing and pulling the trigger. 
A VASCAR unit requires far more human input than radar or laser guns—which greatly increases the possibility of mistakes.

VASCAR works like this: The officer measures the distance between the two points—typically, by using the patrol car's odometer, which 
is connected to the VASCAR unit. When the officer sees the target vehicle pass one of two points, the officer pushes a button to start 
the electronic stopwatch, then pushes it again to stop it when the vehicle passes the second point.

> How VASCAR Fails >>

Using VASCAR correctly isn't easy. For example, it is no easy thing to accurately push the "time" and "distance" buttons while observing 
the target pass between two points, at least one of which is almost sure to be far away from the officer. And, of course, doing this 
accurately is even harder when the patrol car is moving.

The most common three mistakes that can cause error in a VASCAR measurement are:

    - The inability of the officer to accurately see when a distant car passes a distant point
    - The officer's reaction time (how long it takes him or her to push the button when a car passes a marker), and
    - The accuracy of the odometer on the officer's car.

Generally, these errors become more pronounced and lead and lead to greater inaccuracies in the final speed estimate when the distance 
between the two passing points is small. For example, there's less likely to be significant inaccuracy using VASCAR if the measured distance 
is something like 1,500 feet than for a much shorter distance like 500 feet.

Because VASCAR accuracy can depend so heavily on the officer's reaction time, it's crucial to know the distance over which the officer 
clocked you. You may be able to obtain this information from the officer prior to the court date by requesting it through a process called "discovery."

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8 - Laser or "LIDAR" Speed Measurements

Laser detectors are the most recent addition to the traffic officer's arsenal of speed-measuring devices.

> How LIDAR Works >>

Built to look and act like a hand-held radar gun, a laser detector uses a low-powered beam of laser light that bounces off the targeted
vehicle and returns to a receiver in the unit. The unit then electronically calculates the speed of the targeted vehicle. 
Laser detectors are supposedly more accurate than radar units.

> Advantages of LIDAR >>

One advantage for police officers of the laser gun is that the light beam is narrower than a radar beam, meaning that it can be more precisely aimed. 
This is true even though laser detectors use three separate beams because the combined width of the three beams is still much narrower than a single 
radar beam at the same distance. This technology reduces but does not eliminate the chance that the speed of a nearby car will be measured instead 
of the speed of the car at which the operator aims the gun.

> How LIDAR Fails >>

Laser detectors measure distance (between the gun and the target car) using the speed of light and the time it takes the light, reflected off the 
target vehicle, to return to the laser gun. The detector makes about 40 of these distance measurements over a third of a second, then divides the 
light's round-trip distance by the time, to get the speed. This means to be accurate the officer must hold the combined beams on the same part of 
the car during the test. While this is easier to do with radar because of its wide beam, it is tricky to do this with a narrow laser beam. 
Also, it's impossible to be sure that the officer has been able to accomplish this feat because the officer can't see the beam.

It's also possible (especially in heavy traffic) for one beam to hit the target car and another beam to hit a nearby car. The chances of this happening 
increase with traffic density and the distance between the laser unit and the measured vehicle.

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