Maybe it’s true you can’t fight city hall or beat a speeding ticket in court.

But Ron Noonan is going to give it a try come March 7.

The 65-year old Sparta man, now retired, made his living as a certified photogrammetrist (the science of measuring by use of photographs), and he says the place where he got ticketed last December for driving 72 mph is just not fair and may not be legal.

That place is S. Jefferson Ave. and Highway 111 on the southern edge of Cookeville.

Three signs there within a distance of less than a tenth of a mile demand that drivers slow from 70 mph, to 65 mph, to 55, Noonan says.

“It’s a distance about equal to seven tractor trailer truck lengths,” says Noonan, who grew up in Pennsylvania and moved here in the 1970’s.

“I call it an entrapment, based on the placement of the signs. After a sign saying ‘Reduced Speed Ahead, immediately it’s 65 mph, then immediately 55 mph, then, boom, you get the radar. You don’t have time to slow down.”

Noonan says he was driving his 1993 Jeep Cherokee on cruise speed of 70 when Trooper Jonathan Reed ticketed him for 72 mph in the 55 mph zone. And he says there’s no way any driver can slow down enough to obey the signs as they are placed.

He’s pretty sure he will lose and have to pay that $150 ticket, but he vowed the day he got it to research the whole setup and fight the ticket in court anyway.

The first thing he did was to subpoena all the tickets that trooper has written in the same place for the past six months.

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether neighborhood radar speed traps violate federal regulations.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau is investigating whether violate federal regulations. The agency began its inquiry in February when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) decided to ask for FCC guidance after it had already encouraged elderly residents for more than a year to use radar guns to track the driving habits of neighbors.

“I don’t quite understand why they would offer to train us, buy us signs, encourage us to report to them on a weekly basis and then report us to the FCC,” said James Roberts, the subject of an FCC complaint initiated by CMPD.

Roberts had been using a Bushnell Velocity Speed Gun to monitor traffic in his area. Although this inexpensive K-Band radar unit is exempt from FCC licensing requirements, its manual warns that improper usage “may cause harmful interference to radio communications.” It is unlikely that Roberts violated any rule or faces any sanction for use of the low-powered gun.

Under the Communications Act, the FCC does not generally have the ability to fine someone who does not hold a license without first issuing a warning. Penalties for licensees can run up to $11,000 for each violation, or each day of a continuing violation. Most police radar guns do require a license to operate because they use higher power levels. The department may face questioning if it loaned equipment requiring a license to uncertified users.

Roberts will not operate his radar gun while the inquiry is pending.

Chicago, Illinois suburbs set up speed traps in which no one OTHER THAN A FELLOW POLICE OFFICER can escape a traffic citation.

Police in Chicago, Illinois suburbs are citing terrorism as a reason for “no mercy” speed traps where every motorist stopped by police — other than fellow police officers — receives a traffic citation. A Chicago Sun-Times analysis found that a total of thirty towns had a policy where more than 90 percent of drivers stopped must be ticketed.

“There’s a lot of people who come in and out, and with all this terrorism and everything else that’s going on, we have zero tolerance,” North Chicago Police Sergeant Sal Cecala told the Sun-Times. “There’s no breaks for the officers to give.” (Well, aparently, there ARE breaks…just to other police officers.)

North Chicago has a 99.5 percent ticket issuance rate — only 21 drivers got warnings out of 4372 stopped. To increase ticket revenue further, the city is preparing to install automated ticketing cameras at intersections. Only Prairie Grove beats North Chicago with a 99.9 percent ticket rate, but police officials insist that officers do not have a ticket quota. In Markham, the ticket issuance rate is 99 percent. In Riverside, it is 96 percent.

Only a few suburbs including Geneva and Plano have ticket issuance rates below 25 percent, ensuring that only serious violations are ticketed. Drivers who may have strayed over the limit without endangering anyone receive warnings.

Source: (Chicago Sun-Times, 8/12/2007)

Legislation allowing plainclothes police officers to give speeding tickets was rejected by the Virginia House of Delegates.

Delegate Roslyn Tyler of Sussex County was against the bill, saying female motorists could be endangered by criminals impersonating police officers.

Delegate Bill Carrico of Grayson County, also spoke against the bill. A former state trooper, Carrico said it would be confusing for a public that’s accustomed to only getting speeding tickets from uniformed officers.

Delegate John Cosgrove, the author of the bill, said plainclothes officers already are allowed to pull motorists over for violations other than speeding.

Thankfully, the bill was rejected on a voice vote.

Yes, cops are using trickier and trickier methods for running ‘covert’ radar speed surveilance.

Last summer, hundreds of Central Florida motorists were ticketed by a costumed Uncle Sam officer in a weeklong operation targeting speeding holiday drivers.

About 20 sheriff’s deputies on motorcycles pulled over speeding motorists after they were detected by Uncle Sam’s laser speed-detection gun. During the four-hour traffic operation, 275 citations were issued, according to sheriff’s deputies.

“Unless Uncle Sam hops in your car and puts his foot on your gas pedal and makes you speed, we are not entrapping anybody,” Orange County traffic division Officer Ken Wynne said.

Speeding tickets handed out by Uncle Sam started at $80 and increased with each mile per hour over the speed limit, Orange County sheriff’s deputies said. Later, during the week of Fourth of July, Uncle Sam was on the lookout for red-light runners and aggressive drivers in Orange County. In the past, deputies have dressed up as elves near Christmas, the Grinch at New Year’s and a leprechaun around St. Patrick’s Day.