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CAN
THEY DO THAT ?
LEAD
FOOT, BEWARE!
WRIGHT
& MILLS, P.A..
I WAS STOPPED FOR
SPEEDING AND I WAS ONLY GOING EIGHT MILES
OVER THE LIMIT. THREE OTHER CARS HAD
PASSED ME AND THEY WERE ALL GOING FASTER
THAN I WAS. THE POLICE OFFICER SAID IT
DIDN'T MATTER AND WROTE ME UP
ANYWAY.
Can
she do that?
Yes,
she can.
If
you are charged with speeding, it is no
defense that someone else was also
speeding, or that other cars were going
faster than you were.
The
police may stop anyone who is speeding. Or
they may not stop anyone. Or they may stop
just some vehicles. It wouldn't be
possible for them to stop everyone who
speeds, because there simply aren't enough
police officers and there isn't enough
time.
What
a police officer may not do is to stop
you, as opposed to other speeders, just
because of your race, your gender or some
other protected characteristic. An officer
cannot choose to stop only young dark
complected individuals traveling alone,
for instance. A police officer cannot use
your speed as a pretext to stop you
because you are a
minority.
Although
many police departments have a policy of
not summonsing people for speeding if they
were not going more than ten miles over
the limit, this policy is not written in
law. You can be cited for speeding, even
if you are only four or five miles over
the limit.
And
it is simply no defense to speeding, or to
any other offense, that other people may
have been doing the same thing but they
were not charged. Enforcement of the laws
does not demand complete
equality.
So,
remember, if you are pulled over, don't
waste your breath complaining to the
police officer that somebody else was
going faster than you were. It won't
prevent you from being charged, and it
won't get you anywhere later in
court.
It's
the law!
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