I got summons in the mail for a traffic violation. I have never been pulled over in my life. I open up to read it and it says "Defendant did drive vehicle with careless disregard for safety of persons or property, changing lanes and cutting off another vehicle causing it to swerve." The officer is a state trooper but he NEVER pulled me over and the ticket is for $115.00 i think this is total bull. Tell me what you guys think because im goining to fight it. :thumbdown

BTW it happened on 11/26/04 i think he just need to meet his quota.

They don't have a quota. They can write as many tickets as they like.

I was always told that they needed to meet a certain number.

You didn't sign any tickets? I would go down and get copies of records pertaining to your incident.

I can't help you much more than that.. Frankly, I'm in shock that people are being cited without even knowing about it. Then again, I shouldn't be all THAT surprised.

Though some posts may require a quota (I haven't heard of any yet) Most posts here in Michigan don't require any sort of quota though the troopers may set a personal quota for themselves anyway. My brother and Cousin are both studying to be State Troopers. As for ticket in the mail I don't think they can send you a ticket like that. I've heard of speed trap tickets they send you in the mail and running red lights with the whole camera deal but not someone saw you swerve infront of someone so they send you a ticket. Sounds like BS to me. I would find a number on the letter/ticket and find out.

I know in my town they use Helicopters to patrol the local highway. If your speeding, they can send you a ticket in the mail.

you sure an off duty cop didnt spot you... them ###s!!! hate them, hate them all...

It depends on the agency. They by law arent "supposed" to have quotas, but a lot of the law enforcement and city/county/state budget relies heavily on Traffic citation money. So in a sense, they do have a type of quota, and in some areas its not uncommon for the higher law officials to put out some sort of "benchmark".

SBstar said:

Though some posts may require a quota (I haven't heard of any yet) Most posts here in Michigan don't require any sort of quota though the troopers may set a personal quota for themselves anyway. My brother and Cousin are both studying to be State Troopers. As for ticket in the mail I don't think they can send you a ticket like that. I've heard of speed trap tickets they send you in the mail and running red lights with the whole camera deal but not someone saw you swerve infront of someone so they send you a ticket. Sounds like BS to me. I would find a number on the letter/ticket and find out.

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The bridge and red light camera fines are generally sent with photographic proof, are they not?

Many areas of the country rely heavily on revenue collected from traffic violations. Hence the 'BS' laws you have to put up with. They exist solely to bring in money for the state/contractors, regardless of what they say about safety.

Hell, in Washington DC, a THIRD of the money you pay for running a red light goes towards the contractors who installed/maintain them, Lockheed Martin IMS/Affiliated Computer Services. In some cities, police don't even review the citations being issued by remote systems (due to image developing being done, once again, by private contractors.)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/078ftoqz.asp Read.

PA huh? I don't really know the rules when it comes to receiving a traffic ticket without being pulled over. However I do know that State Trooper tickets don't go away as easily as local tickets do. I too have heard of the quota and I do believe it is true. The quota is just an assurance that the cop isn't going to park on the interstate and sleep all day. It's the only paper-based way to show that a cop is in fact doing his job. I do know however I did have a friend who was tailgating someone a few years back and when the passing lane opened up he passed her off and shortly got pulled over for speeding. The lady that he was tailgating pulled over and told the cop about the tailgating and the kid got another ticket on top of the speeding. The only tickets that I have heard of in PA that don't require a state trooper to be a witness would be "Work Zone" related. Here in PA Penn DOT workers have the authority to write down a liscense plate number and turn it into the cops if he/she feels that the driver was driving in an unsafe manner in a work zone. As for the state trooper those guys are usually pretty prepared when it comes to documenting tickets. I don't believe that he/she would just sit down and pick a random 7 digit number and assign a ticket because their quota was low.
I wonder how a ticket like that works... I mean without pulling you over they can't prove that you were driving your car, I mean it could have been borrowed by a friend when all this happened. I would imagine that the violation would be assigned to the registered car and the owner would be liable to pay for it. To take it to court or not to take it to court will be your decision, I mean there aren't any points involved and giving the cop a hard time could result in him pulling you over later and being a real bastard about it. Then again as a citizen of the great USA you have a right to have your day at trial, the only problem is that there is usually a charge ($50?) if you are found guilty.

In MD, I think they have this thing where if you see someone speeding/driving bad/etc, you can call this number, write down the license plate, and send it in. Of course, if you do that, you have to show up in court, to testify against them.

I would go to the court immediately and see what's up with it.

It would probably be a hit or miss on this one. I dont want my insurance to go up and i really done feel like paying the ticket. Its the fact that if there was a reasonable cause for me to get a ticket i should have been pulled over and ticketed then, but for them to just send something in the mail i think its wrong. Im goining to ask a lawyer.

tom fight it, also PM me the troopers name, I'll see if I know him

Most states have it on the books that if an officer doesn't pull you over to get your signature on the court summons, they have to serve it to you personally.

I'd fight it.

just send them back a picture in the mail of the 115.00 and call it a day

i dont see how they could just fine you if you were never pulled over. id call to see the logistics of the situation, maybe a security camera caught it and they sent it in to the police, maybe a off duty got youre plates, etc. then talk to a lawyer and see what can be done.

dsm4life said:

just send them back a picture in the mail of the 115.00 and call it a day

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Supposedly, a guy in CA did this with a local sherrif's office... they sent him back a picture of handcuffs.

If "Defendant did drive vehicle with careless disregard for safety of persons or property, changing lanes and cutting off another vehicle causing it to swerve" and the officer didnt pull you over, he wasnt doing his job protecting us innocent drivers. I would try to recollect the facts that you were at a friends house at the time using someone elses car. If they dont have you on camera, its their word against yours and if they do have you on camera, they cant ticket you for what someone else does in your car.

I just read over the ticket again and it said that the date that it happened was 10/27/04 and it was filed on 11/26/04. Something is really messed up i dont understand... How come it said that it was done a month before and they just filled out the ticket a few days ago? Im definitly goining to fight it hopefully I wont get any points or anything if i do get charged for it because i have never even gotten a speeding ticket or anything in the 3 years i have been driving.

Gary 420A RS said:

you sure an off duty cop didnt spot you... them ###s!!! hate them, hate them all...

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an off duty cop can't call in anything if he's not on duty.

Everyone is forgetting that most every police car has a Camera in it. If he was behind you, caught you swerving around, but he wasn't in the situation to be able to pursue you, He can take the video to court as evidence and you will lose your case.

Ask me how I know.

the only way that they can mail you a ticket is if they have a record of the violation. Such as a radar gun reading or picture of a motor vehicle running a light. So i highly doubt there is a photograph of you making another car swerve due to a lange change.

Also this tends to be a pretty fail safe thing around here in washington but if you fight it in court and request that the officer be present, they never show up and you get out of the ticket.

And last there is really no such thing as a quota. It is an excuse that people use to justify something. However this is odd but tis not a quota thing. If it was something like that they would target old people like the scam artists do. They get gov. budgets so why need a quota. I have done many ride alongs and there are officers around here who refuse to write tickets.

Thanks for all the help guys, im going to find out as much as i can about it first.

tom1995tsi said:

I got summons in the mail for a traffic violation. I have never been pulled over in my life. I open up to read it and it says "Defendant did drive vehicle with careless disregard for safety of persons or property, changing lanes and cutting off another vehicle causing it to swerve." The officer is a state trooper but he NEVER pulled me over and the ticket is for $115.00 i think this is total bull. Tell me what you guys think because im goining to fight it. :thumbdown

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You cut off an off-duty cop. Surprise! He will show up in court.

pinknuggit said:

an off duty cop can't call in anything if he's not on duty.

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"Cop" is a 24/7 job. It may be different in MO, and it may be different in PA, but around here a cop is always a cop.