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By teal_dx
#198316
COLUMBUS, Ohio – If a police officer says he saw you speeding, then you were speeding.

The Ohio Supreme Court today ruled 5-1 that a police officer's visual estimate of speed is enough to convict a motorist of speeding, as long as the officer is trained and certified by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy or a similar organization, and has experience in visually estimating speed.

The court upheld the 2008 conviction of motorist Mark Jenney, who was stopped by Copley police officer Christopher R. Santimarino for speeding in a 60 mph zone on Ohio 21.

"Rational triers of fact could find a police officer's testimony regarding his unaided visual estimation of a vehicle's speed, when supported by evidence that the officer is trained, certified by OPOTA or a similar organization, and experienced in making such estimations, sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant's speed. Independent verification of the vehicle's speed is not necessary to support a conviction for speeding," Justice Maureen O'Connor wrote for the majority.

Justice Terrence O'Donnell dissented, saying, "I do not agree that such testimony per se is sufficient evidence to support a conviction for speeding. Like any other witness, a police officer's credibility is to be determined by the jury or other fact finder."


full story:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf ... timat.html

:?: [smilie=BangHead.gif]
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By Classiccarsrule85
#198332 wow just wow that just gives the officers who are pricks more rights to pull you over and ticket you for obeying the laws....

i gotta say i trust poluce officers but human error is very large as well as the speed cameras and speed guns are technology and even they have bugs in the programming but really....the whole human error thing outways any possible correctness only when im doing the speed limit and i get passed rather quickly do i think that the person is speeding i cant tell just by looking persay unless its in like a 30 because thats where i see most cars at in my town and i can tell you on my street when they catch air over a bump that isnt 30 lol but how can you tell if someone is speeding just by your eyes.....

1 outa 6 judges chose correctly
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By OleFolk
#204846 I beleive this ended up being rejected.
My cousin was a marine and he told me every branch is trained to do this
So its nothing new they just want to have more power I guess :roll:
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By boos-tit
#204863 if you ask me, cops earn their bad rep.
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By ohDirka
#205922 I figure I may as well speed there because I could be doing the speed limit and get pulled over for speeding so if I was actually speeding then I wouldnt be pissed about it. I do have a radar scrambler but that doesnt always do the job.
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By Chance
#205925
officer's visual estimate of speed is enough to convict a motorist of speeding, as long as the officer is trained and certified



Same thing here in AZ. Pretty stupid. :thumbdown: