Speed Traps: Legal Way to Administer Speeding Tickets?

There are many ways and reasons law enforcement officials attempt to deter speeders, and all of them center on ways to legally issue a speeding ticket to someone violating the law. In most instances, if an officer uses a radar gun or paces an individual driver exceeding the speed limit, the driver faces penalties that often curb their behavior. For those who must suffer multiple and increasing penalties, most states have systems to provide further incentives for them to drive safely. One of the methods that is under much scrutiny these days is speed traps. Many states have laws allowing them, while others prohibit them. What is the controversy about and how can they provide safer roads?

Speed Traps Defined

A speed trap can come in many forms, but there are basically two categories of speed traps:

• Stretches of roadway where the police measure the time it takes a vehicle to move between one designated point and another. Measurement devices can include radar, VASCAR (an automatic timing device), or ANPR (automatic number plate recognition). Those devices can be used from the ground, a vehicle, or an airplane.

• Stretches of roadway where high numbers of speeders have been ticketed in the past. The police then set up speed traps to catch unwary travelers and increase their revenue. These can often be in areas where there are few or no speed limit signs, or the speed limit has been artificially set low to catch more speeders.

Clearly, some municipalities may try to entrap drivers using these methods. There is no way for a judge or law enforcement official to determine the cause for which a speed trap was set up. In fact, some jurisdictions require speed traps to be clearly marked and posted for public information. For many reasons, the system is controversial at best, and many jurisdictions do not allow them.

Fighting Speed Trap Tickets

Law enforcement officials cite statistics that speed traps do influence drivers in those areas to drive within speed laws. In addition, they deny that entrapment occurs when the speed limit is clearly posted. No one makes the drivers exceed the speed limit. Police just ticket those who do.

However, there may be means for fighting a speed trap ticket when one is issued.

• If the trap was set up in violation of state or local laws, a lawyer may get the ticket dismissed.

• The officer made an error in measuring the speed of a vehicle.

• The equipment was faulty.

• In some cases, a lawyer may be able to prove entrapment, by means of showing that the speed limit is inappropriate for a certain area or that speed signs were intentionally removed or obscured.

Getting Legal Help for Fighting Speed Trap Tickets

When dealing with a controversial point of law, it can be impossible to fight it without the help of an informed and experienced speeding ticket attorney. They know the laws in a driver’s jurisdiction and they know how to look for inconsistencies in an arresting officer’s report or testimony. Some more complex cases may be impossible to win without this kind of expertise at a driver’s side.