Loss of Privacy

A local newscast has exposed that, when some Florida police officers write you a traffic ticket, an extra “smiley face” message is given to the judge, unlawfully characterizing you without your consent or knowledge.

It doesn’t matter if the judge ignores any of the smiley faces or not. It’s the public perception that matters. It is corruption because a police officer is intending on influencing a judge’s decision, which affects whether a person is guilty or innocent and whether the city’s coffers get filled just a little bit more.

In Chicago, LIDAR tickets are being tossed out by judges that question the accuracy of the laser guns. The judges say that LIDAR has not been proven scientifically and, therefore, have no choice but to toss the cases.

Within the past year judges in Cook County Traffic Court in Chicago determined that speeds captured by lidar were not admissible because the devices had not been proven scientifically reliable in an Illinois court, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the law department, which prosecutes most speeding tickets in the city.

The judges brushed aside the office’s position that such a legal hearing was unnecessary because lidar devices, which use a light beam instead of radio waves, have been used by police departments across the country with no problems for a long time and because some courts outside Illinois already had found them to be scientifically sound.

And some have not. Chicago isn’t the only place to have problems with LIDAR. Hawaii is also seeing an increase in tickets that have been dismissed for similar reasons.

Not all judges, however, agree, leaving motorists under the impression that all their tickets will be dismissed. The judges who do toss the cases, say that a Fry hearing should be held to determine if the LIDAR was correct. Unfortunately, it’s cheaper to toss the ticket and let the motorist go than to perform the lengthy Fry hearing that requires witnesses and a lot of money and time.