Originally Posted by DevilDog II

Funny, I felt the same way about the thousands of people I dealt with over the years. I dealt with people from every walk of life during the 3 1/2 decades I was a police officer, but I always tried to be open-minded. I've had countless negative experiences with just about every profession imaginable, but I would never "lump' all of those folks into one group. I'd wager an educated guess that many of those same professions are represented here, but personally I'd never categorize an entire profession because of my experiences with a few.

Police officers are a product of our society. Just like teachers, doctors, nurses, bankers, plumbers, carpenters, firemen, etc., they're no different than anyone else. I'm not foolish enough to deny that there are bad apples in law enforcement. There are a number of people on this forum who are critical of police officers. Since they seem to be quite knowledgeable about the workings of law enforcement and have a work ethic that is beyond reproach, perhaps some of them should consider a career change. I'd come out of retirement to supervise a group of police officers who'd give 110% every minute of every day, never make a mistake, and who never issue a traffic ticket that didn't leave the recipient smiling and feeling good about it.

I, like Ferg03 Z06, am out of here.

Originally Posted by NukeC5

I've received several speeding tickets over the years, none of which I have tried to contest, but I think I draw the line at this one from yesterday. Do I have a chance at making a legitimate defense?

My grounds are: The stater's original speed, and possibly entrapment. This is quite simple:
The State Trooper was traveling north on the I5. So naturally, he is setting the pace while everyone tags along behind. He is going well over the speed limit passing people up. (Not on call, no lights on). Everyone does this, not daring to pass a police, people always follow behind.

So when he decides to speed up to 80, I go ahead and speed up too, to keep my original following distance. Then he slams his brakes, gets behind me and pulls me over pissed off at how fast I was going.

Its ridiculous in the first place to give a ticket for that. Like I said, people follow all the time and not just in California. But by definition, entrapment involves a law enforcement officer coercing behavior that otherwise would not have happened. I was happy to follow a nice flow of traffic. Upon speeding up, he tricked me into doing so as well.

Can I call this entrapment?

Other details: Supposedly this section was a 65mph zone. (He was not inclined to slow down for). He wrote me up for 80. I stayed calm and respectful, never making a comment. Simply listened and took the ticket with a smile.

Originally Posted by o2bnkc

That's quite a bit of a stretch between "all the time" and four times. I do understand where you're coming from, though. There is always a chance something bad is going to happen.

Originally Posted by Dixiecrat

Id just say , Judge its like this, The speedometer in my old vette is broke. Sometimes it says 40 when I know im doing 65 by the way other traffic moves and sometimes it says 80 when im at a stop light. So I thought it was safe to drive along with the officer as I didn t want to speed. I had no idea he was going 80 mph with no emergency lights on.

Originally Posted by Dixiecrat

Id just say , Judge its like this, The speedometer in my old vette is broke. Sometimes it says 40 when I know im doing 65 by the way other traffic moves and sometimes it says 80 when im at a stop light. So I thought it was safe to drive along with the officer as I didn t want to speed. I had no idea he was going 80 mph with no emergency lights on.