Estimates OK for Speeding Tickets, Court Rules: Let the Looting Begin!

Ohio's highest court has ruled that a person may be convicted of speeding purely if it looked to a police officer that the motorist was going too fast.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an officer's visual estimation of speed is enough to support a conviction if the officer is trained, certified by a training academy, and experienced in watching for speeders. The court's 5-1 decision says independent verification of a driver's speed is not necessary.

The court upheld a lower court's ruling against a driver who challenged a speeding conviction that had been based on testimony from police officer in Copley, 25 miles south of Cleveland. The officer said it appeared to him that the man was driving too fast.'

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Clegg: Digital Economy Bill was a 'Stitch-up'

Clegg claims the way the bill was rushed through without proper debate is a "classic example of what's wrong with Westminster".

"It was rammed through after the election was called in the last dying days of the Parliament in something called a 'wash-up'," said Clegg. "It wasn't a wash-up, it was a stitch-up. A stitch-up between Labour and Conservative MPs who decided that you didn't deserve to have your representatives in Parliament properly looking at a bill which might have a very, very serious impact on the way that you use the internet."

"That's why we said it should have been scrutinised properly, it shouldn't have been rushed through in that way in the first place, at all".'

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Man Fined for Reversing Into His Own Driveway

Maxwell Cannon was issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice and informed that he was committing a traffic offence for waiting on the zigzag markings of a pediestrian crossing outside his home in Harrington, near Workington in Cumbria.

Mr Cannon, 25, said he was waiting for a break in the heavy traffic to reverse onto his property on August 10 last year and appealed the ticket at West Allerdale Magistrate's Court.

The court upheld the fine and Carlisle Crown Court has now turned down his appeal.'

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Town That Scrapped 'Motorist Tax' Speed Cameras Sees No Increase in Accidents

The first town in Britain to scrap fixed speed cameras has seen no increase in accidents, it was revealed yesterday. But the number of motorists prosecuted for speeding there dropped by more than 40 per cent.

Swindon switched off its cameras over claims they were a ' blatant tax on the motorist' which did nothing to improve safety.

Yesterday, supporters of the move hailed the figures as proof they were right. Now the Conservative-run council has urged other authorities to follow suit, saying the money can be better spent on other measures to cut casualties.

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High-tech Speed Cameras Which Use Satellites to Track Motorists on Secret Trial in Britain

Speed cameras which communicate with each other by satellite are being secretly tested on British roads.

The hi-tech devices can follow drivers’ progress for miles to calculate whether they have broken speed limits.
Combining number plate recognition technology with global positioning satellites, they can be set up in a network to monitor tens of thousands of cars over huge areas for the smallest breach.

Known as SpeedSpike, the system uses similar methods of recognition as the cameras which enforce the congestion charge in London, and allow two cameras to 'talk' to each other if a vehicle appears to have travelled too far in too short a space of time.'

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Proof Speed Cameras Exist to Rake in Money as Receipts Finally Fall

Motorists have been hit with speeding tickets worth almost £1billion under Labour, a report shows.

But receipts have fallen since police were stopped from keeping part of the money raised from speed cameras.

It suggests that the explosion in the number of cameras was used as a 'cash cow' and that forces no longer have an incentive to install them.

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Broke Cities Ravage Motorists With Speeding Tickets

Townships and states all across the Union are feeling the pressure of this Depression, so they are turning to police to help raise money through vehicle or traffic citations. Towns are installing surveillance cameras at intersections to catch drivers cutting a fast yellow light, running a red, not coming to a full stop, not stopping behind the line, etc. A camera catches license plate numbers and a computer sends the ticket in the mail. Pretty soon they'll just debit your checking account.'

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Great Grandmother Fined £1,000 and Forced to Wear a Tag for Selling a Goldfish to a 14 Year Old

Her offence was to unwittingly sell a goldfish to a 14-year-old boy taking part in a trading standards 'sting'.
At most, pet shop owner Joan Higgins, 66, expected a slap on the wrist for breaking new animal welfare laws which ban the sale of pets to under-16s.
Instead, the great-grandmother was taken to court, fined £1,000, placed under curfew - and ordered to wear an electronic tag for two months.

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Virginia Hands Out 6996 Traffic Tickets In One Weekend In An Effort To Raise Revenue For The State Government

Last Saturday and Sunday state troopers were ordered to absolutely saturate Interstate 95 and Interstate 81 and to issue as many traffic tickets as humanly possible during those two days. Why? Well, it turns out that the state of Virginia has a 2.2 billion dollar budget deficit that they are trying to deal with, and so they need to find some quick sources of cash.'

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Drivers Face Fine For Leaving Engines Running While Parked... Because it Harms Environment

Leaving your car engine running could land you a fine under a controversial pollution crackdown.

A council has instructed traffic wardens to issue £20 penalty notices to drivers who keep their engines on while parked – and the charge could double to £40 if not paid promptly.

But the attempt to 'improve air quality' by North Lincolnshire Council has been condemned as a 'money-making scam'.

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Sheep-Shearing Season on the Revenue Ranch

To put the matter bluntly, police -- the self-described "Sheepdogs" -- aren't here to protect the flock, but rather to make sure that we're securely penned in when it's sheep-shearing season.

During the penultimate weekend of February, police in Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota conducted an elaborate and lucrative sting to enforce the state's primary seat belt law.

Officers disguised as homeless people were dispatched to harass drivers at a busy intersection: The "homeless" people -- most likely in violation of traffic ordinances, certainly in violation of the 4th Amendment and Minnesota's state equivalent -- would peer into cars and then radio ahead to their cohorts in officially sanctioned crime, who would hand each "offender" an extortion note (more commonly called a "traffic ticket").'

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California City to Charge $300 to Call 911

Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.

But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.

Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.

Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.'

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Motoring Fines to Rise by £15 for Victim's Surcharge

Currently the 'Victims' Surcharge' is only handed out with more serious fines from the courts, but it will be added to fixed penalty tickets for offences such as speeding and other parking misdemeanours, according to a Parliamentary answer.

Ministers said that they plan to extend the victim surcharge to fixed-penalty notices and 'road traffic offences', an idea first considered by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary in April last year. This would mean the minimum £60 fine for speeding would rise to £75.'

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Police Handing Out Tickets For Air Fresheners

An increasing number of drivers are being cited for windshield and window obstructions, which can include anything an officer deems to “materially obstruct” a driver’s vision. The only exceptions are government-issued items such as I-PASS boxes and parking stickers.

Offenders can expect little sympathy from Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega of the Illinois State Police.

“Driving is a privilege, and drivers should take every precaution,” he said. Hanging anything from the rear-view-mirror “could be a dangerous if not deadly error,” Vega said.

But civil-rights advocates and defense lawyers see something else in the stops: an arbitrary excuse to pull over drivers and proceed to a more invasive search. A recent court decision in Illinois and a bill making its way through the Michigan legislature indicate a sharpening of those concerns.'

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Owners of Uninsured Cars Face New Fines Under New Government Curbs

Taxed but uninsured cars left on a public road could be clamped or seized under the new laws which are being unveiled by the Government.

The draconian new powers are intended to tackle an estimated two million uninsured motorists who, the Government says, are responsible for 160 deaths a year.

But the changes have angered civil liberty campaigners and also alarmed motoring groups who fear that law-abiding motorists could be penalised for innocent mistakes, such as allowing their insurance to lapse while they are on holiday.

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Just another corporaate revenue collection scam to fleece the public

Demoralised Police Sent on Litter Patrols to Hit Corporate Revenue Collection Targets

Police have been ordered to go on litter patrol in a bid to boost the number of people nicked for minor offences.
Officers will be forced to ditch their uniforms and go out undercover in plain clothes in an attempt to hit performance targets.
However cops are furious over the move - because they don't even have the powers to issue on-the-spot-fines.
Instead, they will have to radio a PCSO - a lower ranking officer - to attend the scene to slap the offender with a £50 to £80 penalty.

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Fury Over Speed Guns That Can See in the Dark

Furious campaigners hit out yesterday at plans to arm police with the radars that can pin a speeding conviction on a driver who will not have any warning.

The new super speed guns work over a distance of more than a mile and can note a car’s registration number from 100 yards away.

Critics last night branded the move as “totally inappropriate” and a backdoor tax on the country’s beleaguered car owners. Up until now handheld speed guns have only been able to work in daylight, giving motorists a clear view of the officer holding it.

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Jack Straw Spent £75 million on Temporary Cells

The full cost of Operation Safeguard, which ran for a period in 2006 and again from January 2007 to last October, was set out in figures released by the Ministry of Justice.
The Conservatives said the sum could have been spent on building a brand new 500-cell prison and operating it for two years.

At an average cost of £843 per prisoner per night it would have been cheaper to house inmates in a "superior suite" at the Ritz hotel, they added.

Under the scheme, police forces were paid to accommodate inmates who should have been in jails which were too crowded to accept any more offenders.

Police cells were used on 89,000 occasions. The cost varied between police forces, ranging up to £1,686 a night - more expensive than a "deluxe king suite" at the world's only seven star hotel, the Jumeirah Burj al Arab, Dubai, the Tories pointed out

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So there you have it. The police Corporation charges the Ministry of Justice Corporation £1,686 per night per prisoner and then the Ministry of Justice Corporation charges you the taxpayer !