Will This App Get Your Traffic Ticket Dismissed?

Happy for anybody to fight a ticket or penalty if they believe they are innocent, but to avoid on a technicality or by being a persistent pest... how about you accept responsibility, or even better, keep us all a bit safer by not breaking the road rules.

Grrrr!!

I just read a lengthy article on a town in Georgia, that is making a killing on traffic tickets.I think the Name of the town was Bradbury, or something similar. It is located on State Road 22. They went from a one-man full-time police officer, and several part-time officers, to a much larger full-time force. People are being warned away, and it was said that the federal government might come and oversee the town's management.

I'm with Phil — if you're really innocent, then that's OK, but an app to help you break laws with impunity? Perhaps you can tell us how an app can help us get away with murder, Bob? No, if you don't want the laws campaign to get them changed, but they're here to protect us. That speeding ticket might save a child's life. Shame on you, Bob, you shouldn't be encouraging people to use apps to help them break laws!

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is nothing of the sort. Please read the article again, or at least the comments posted after yours.

Bob, I had to raise an eyebrow at this subject, and your treatment of it.

Speeding, running a stop sign, or driving while yakking it up on your cell phone, are all serious, potentially life threatening, breaches of the law. These breaches are all done voluntary and with the knowledge that they are against the law.

Maybe that is an East Coast thing — but traffic fines are set to give people an incentive to drive safely and park in legal spaces. A parked car uses space that might have better uses. So price to rent a space or use one temporarily needs to be high enough to keep people moving. A moving violation is serious, it means bad, accident prone driving. The state, county or city keeps all the roads up, and that is expensive. Accidents cost the local government money, reviewing and replacing damaged property.
Traffic engineers try to make the city safe for driving, but human behavior is tough to change, even when the changes are to keep folks alive. We are in a period of rising traffic fatalities — time to be more attentive while driving.

It has been proven many times over that "speeding" laws in metropolitan by-ways cause more accidents. It is NOT the absolute speed but the difference between the fastest drivers on the roadways compared to the slowest (or maybe even those who keep exactly at the posted speed limit). In the southern California highways, we make almost every morning commuter a low breaker every morning! Even grandma from Pasadena has to drive way above the posted speed limit if she wants to attend her grandkids next birthday alive.

"low breaker" should have been "LAW breaker".

How would BobRankin be so knowledgeable about the intricacies of ticket beating?????
Thank you Sir, for the information.

We're all entitled to making s boo boo, now and again, and Bob. this was one for you. Encouraging lawbreakers to mess with scofflaw entities is no way to promote safety and personal responsibility as a driver. As it's said: Don't do the crime, if you can't pay the fine, or something like that.

What follows is my opinion:

I've read several people complaining about Bob telling us how to 'beat the law'. That is NOT how I read this item. I take it that none of these people have ever been wrongly accused of anything. I try to follow the rules when I am out driving, and I fervently hope that I am never wrongly accused of speeding, illegally parking, or of being guilty of any other infraction you can think of, but the truth is that many people do get wrongly accused, and I for one am very grateful that there are sources of help for those of us to whom this happens. If someone gets out of a citation due to some technicality, the law is still the law. The police must adhere to the law, the same as the rest of us. That includes how they do their jobs. If a police-officer incorrectly completes a citation, and the recipient gets out of paying the ticket, don't blame the citizen for being wise enough to get expert help or of being observant, blame the officer for failing to do his/her job correctly, even if that expert assistance is an app that you can download to your phone. Don't forget, if you are caught speeding, illegally parking, or committing any other infraction of the local traffic laws, and the officer who caught you does his/her job correctly, there is nothing you can do to get out of paying the piper, so again, put the blame where it belongs. After all, these 'technicalities' are included in our laws to protect us from being wrongly or improperly accused. If a defendant 'gets off' on a technicality, rejoice. The law is doing exactly what it is intended to do.

Bob, I thank you for all the invaluable information you make available to us (your readers), and the unbiased manner in which you present it. I for one think it is very good to know there is help and that I am not alone if I get into trouble.

My2Cents,

Ernie

Bob is not encouraging people to shun responsibility. He is encouraging people to fight unjust tickets which is obvious from his context. I live in CA and, depending on the city, various methods of ticketing amount to extortion. People will not fight and the fees added onto tickets exceed the amount of the ticket fine. For example, a $100 fine can end up being a $400 ticket. Cha-ching. The highest taxed state keeps taxing more to pay expensive pensions for govt. workers. I'm not anti-police but I AM anti-extorsion of money from people at an intersection where a camera substitutes from an actual police officer.

I find some of these comments rather naïve. Tickets are not for punishing a crime, they are for making money for a jurisdiction. In my state, the ticket may be only $150, but the "court cost" is $280, which runs it up. $280 is a week's pay for many who are on minimum wage. Traffic tickets and their costs have gotten out of control. It is nothing more than sending a man with a gun and a badge out to rob the public. I always feel sorry for Jesse James when I see a State Trooper stopping somebody for a chicken poo violation. Poor Jesse only had a gun...
We need to rein in ticket costs, danger to officers, who are often shot at traffic stops, and quotas. No officer should have to write tickets. "Serve and Protect" does NOT mean stealing from the public.
There has to be a better way.

Jesse James was a murderer. Too far a reach. As a retired traffic cop of 30 years here is my experience. Out of all the traffic stops I made, I only cited 40% of them and either warned or assisted them in some way. For speeders the first thing I asked was "Is there some sort of emergency?" Less than 1% had an actual emergency. On a weekend night I could find drunk drivers in groups of 5-10 (no kidding) all I could do was stop the worst one. I averaged 3 DUI's a night on weekends. If someone was in jeopardy of losing their license they were always advised to talk with DA before trial to see if there was some lee-way for a reduction of the charge. For those who had extensive records it was an indication that there were numerous violations all written by other officers from other departments. Of the thousands of tickets I wrote I can only recall 2 offenders that I cited more than once. One I caught twice in one year on his birthday for DUI after his birthday party. I had to endure insults and aggression while trying to keep the highways safe for everyone. And yes I cited people for driving too slow. When asked if I was meeting my quota for the month, week, year, I always replied "We don't have a quota anymore. Now I can write as many tickets as I want."

Yes, there are maniac drivers who should get heavy fines for endangering other drivers. But as Sean and Alex said, governments are using fines as a profit center. I would call it legalized extortion.

Sure, blowing thru a red light or driving 50mph OVER the posted speed limit is one thing. But, should changing lanes without signaling cost you $500? In California, they are building new court houses with the money they get from traffic fines. The list of charges even say something like "additional $240 fine for court construction".