The short answer is no, they don’t. Despite what rumors you might hear, there are no technicalities that can get you out of a speeding ticket that easily. At the end of the day a traffic infraction of any kind is a civil case, which means the state needs to prove their case “by a preponderance of the evidence”. This means “more likely than not”, or “probably” or “51% chance that it happened” if you want to put a number on it. It is not required that they prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Therefore, they can probably get the ticket to stick with less evidence than you probably think. It just has to be enough that an officer can testify to their observations at trial, and that their testimony is enough to convince the Judge that it probably happened.
Officers are trained to observe speeding in a few ways. First is radar/laser, which is pretty self-explanatory. Radar devices should be regularly calibrated. They also have certain limitations. For example, if traffic is heavy, the radar will detect all vehicles but display the speed of the fastest vehicle. These details can vary between radar devices, but that feature is common. Officers also usually have front and rear facing radars. These devices can also operate while an officer is driving. The device takes the speed of the officer’s car into account. This training and technology make judges far more likely to take the officer’s word as truth regarding a speeding ticket.
Another method of speed detection is called “pacing”. It is where the officer simply matches their own speed to the car in question and looks down at their speedometer. It can also be done by the officer driving the speed limit and observing whether the car in question is moving faster than the officer’s case.
A third method is by visual estimation. This is usually used for more egregious speeds. If an officer is aware of the standard distance between lane lines on the road, the officer can count how many seconds it takes a car to pass 10 lines, for example, and then use that to calculate the estimated speed. This is not commonly used and is not a reliable way to measure minute differences in speed. However, it can be used to convince a Judge that a person was probably speeding.
While these are all options an officer can use, at the end of the day, the officer can testify to anything they observe which might convince a Judge that someone was probably speeding. If you have a speeding ticket, or any traffic infraction that you want to fight, please give us a call at Banks and Brower.
