can a cop give you a ticket if he actually does not radar you. If he only paces you?

Answer 1

As far as I understand it if a cop paces you and feels that you are speeding he can ticket you but, he must also be able to prove in court that his speedometer was set correctly at the time of the incident. So take it to court and demand that he proves just that.

Answer 2

I'm a local police officer in Central California, so I write from experience. Speeding tickets can be given three ways in California:
1. Visual Estimation of Speed. The officer proves they've had training in visual estimation of speed. This includes estimating, within an acceptable limit the vehicle's speed at varying speeds. The officer must remain current in his training.
2. Pacing or Bumper Pacing. The officer follows a vehicle and matches its speed or allows the vehicle to slowly pull ahead. The officer gets his speed off the calibrated speedometer or a radar unit. The officer should insure his vehicle's speedometer/radar was recently calibrated and documentation exists.
3. Radar. A misconception is that an officer can simply look at the radar reading and issue the ticket. In reality, the officer does a visual estimation of speed, confirms it with the radar reading and doppler tone the radar unit emits. This insures that the reading is consistent with the officer's observation.

My personal favorite is the pace method. As long as I've paced a sufficient distance, it's held up nicely in court.

Of course, I don't like giving regular, hard-working people tickets and most other cops don't either. So take this advise: Slow down a little. If pulled over, be polite. Assholes get most of the tickets.

Remember, this might be the most horrible, agrivating, confusing, irritating thing that's happened to you in a long time, but for me it's just Tuesday.

Answer 3

YES, The answer is absolutely yes. You see there are three things that a Trooper/Police officer has too testify about in court on a speeding case. First they have to observe the vehicle, then verify a clear tone on radar, and finally a radar reading. You see all police cars have a speedometer calibration of +or- only 2 mph. So the answer is yes, a radar reading only is not enough to convict someone. There are other ways of catching a speeder. P.S. next time look in the rear view.

Answer 4

Of course they can. Think they had radar back in the 60s? Pacing is how they caught speeders for a long time before radar. It is perfectly legal and the ticket will stick.

Answer 5

yep, in addition to all the wonderful answers here, I got a speeding ticket last month from the California Highway Patrol, my radar detector didn't pick up anything, because the cop was pacing me and I wasn't even paying attention anyways...It's better to just not go more than 10miles over the speed limit on main roads and highways ;)

Answer 6

yes he can write the ticket. It would stand up in court alot better with radar. However that does not mean it would get thrown out of court. If he has lots of experience with this and had successfully writen and won other tickets in this manner, you can bet you wont get it thrown out. But, would be easier for you to fight then if he had used radar.

Answer 7

Yeah, he can give you a ticket and if he paced you he probably got you on video. If so that's as good as a radar conviction..

Answer 8

Of course. Not all cops have radar, and they've been succesfully giving speeding tickets without it for quite some time now.

Answer 9

radar has to be running to write a ticket, but cars with radar can use it while in motion.

Answer 10

He can but you can go to court and challenge the cops actions. The ticket will be thrown out.