[bbronston]

Randian, 1793 crashes seems like it should be enough of an indication to even the most blockheaded person (not referring to you) that something simple like requiring motorists to move over or slow down when a safety officer is on the side of the road might be in order. What is your problem with moving over to keep people safe? I mean, there are some things worth arguing about but this surely can't be one of them.

[On-da-Beach]

Here's my problem with it...

When a law is manipulated by LEO's in order to build stats and revenue, then the law and those LEO's aren't following the spirit of the law causing the public to lose respect. The window tint laws are a prime example. They're being used as an excuse to pull over profiled vehicles to check the occupants out. Now if they're using the 'Move Over' law to trap people "oh well, you didn't move soon enough" then they're focused on the wrong things. Drive through Waldo and you'll see a REAL speed trap in action!

Real police work must be too difficult.

[bbronston]

If you can prove to me that this law was solely designed to profile then I'd say you are right. Can you?

[faithfulFrank]

It is more then just law officers. Firefighters, EMS workers, and folks who get in accidents or disabled vehicles are safer with this law.
I've worked too many accidents where I've almost been killed by stupid rubberneckers not moving over.

Frank

[On-da-Beach]

Originally Posted by bbronston

If you can prove to me that this law was solely designed to profile then I'd say you are right. Can you?

I didn't say it was solely designed to profile...
I said it was manipulated, and not following the spirit of the law

The move over law itself would be a great thing, until some cop uses it to set himself in a position where he can be hard to see, then turn on his lights and put a driver in a place where there isn't time or a possibility to slow or move... and bingo...they write that ticket

like Boss Hogg changing speed limit signs just as a car gets to it...

One of our son's friends became a cop in a small central Fl. town. He told me they 'trained' him to get right on someones bumper and tailgate to make the person nervous enough to do something worthy of a citation. That's really good police work.

[faithfulFrank]

That is sadly wrong.
It is an abuse of power.

It seems that sometimes a law is good, but the abuse of it is not.

Frank

[bbronston]

ODB, I see what you are saying. I doubt that this practice is widespread, though.

[Spring Hillian]

Take the ticket to court and fight it.

Originally Posted by Pigssuck

Its called entrapment. And Cops wonder why everyone hates them. My wife just got pulled over and was given a $115 ticket. They had a cop car pulled over on the far right lane with its lights on and pulled over every vehicle that passed and gave them a ticket!! I am so pissed at these corrupt Cops!!!!

[randian]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

Take the ticket to court and fight it.

A cop lying in court would be unthinkable.

[JM1822]

I'm sure I'll regret replying to this post but oh well.....here it goes.

Lets start off with a couple legal definitions. First, we'll go with "profiling". It's an often misused word. If you were talking about RACIAL profiling, that would be the act of stopping someone because of their race. When they are in violation of a traffic law, it's hard to argue racial profiling. It's also hard to argue racial profiling when you are using the window tint violation that the previous poster mentioned. My agency has been documenting each traffic stop as it relates to race, sex, age, etc and they are in line with the demographics of each area. We've been doing it for over a decade.

The second definition is "entrapment". This has got to be the most misunderstood word in the english language. Entrapment only occurs when a police officer overtly ENCOURAGES a person to commit an illegal act. An example of entrapment would be a person walking through the mall and an undercover police officer approaches them and ASKS them if they would like to buy some meth real cheap. It's NOT hiding in the woods clocking people on radar and it's NOT parking a car on the side of the road with it's lights on. I guess an example of true entrapment for a traffic violation would be if a police officer pulled up to you at a red light, asked you if you wanted to race, then wrote you a ticket for it.

The statistics I posted earlier were the total number of crashes involving police cars that were struck while they were on the side of the road with their lights on. The deaths and injuries were for ALL people involved in the crashes. If you don't care about MY safety, then fine. There isn't much I can do to get you to care about me. But the fact of the matter is it is not just the cops that get hurt when people run into the back of our cars. YOU are just as likely to be seriously injured when striking a stationary vehicle. The law was written to protect EVERYONE, not just the emergency workers. Would you really want to go through life knowing that your moment of inattentiveness cost someone their life? In my small office, I can think of three officers that got SERIOUSLY injured when they were plowed by vehicles. And I'm sure I could come up with more than that if I thought about it for a minute or two. Heck, my boss just got back to work last month after his patrol car was struck by a tractor trailer a year and a half ago. I can't tell you how many close calls I've had in my career. Since the Move Over Law passed I have noticed a large improvement, but there are STILL people that refuse to move over even when there isn't another car anywhere near them that would prevent them from moving.

If you got a ticket for not moving over and you think you shouldn't have gotten one then by all means call up the county clerk's office and request a hearing in front of a judge. This is America. That's the beauty of the place. We all get to talk to a judge if we want to. And as far as a police officer making up a story, I'm not real sure why one would have to do that. If you've ever driven in Florida you might have noticed that there are plenty of real traffic violations to go after. I'm not sure why a cop would have to spend time making any up. And I'm not sure why you would think that a cop needs to lie in court. What does the cop gain if the judge finds the defendant guilty? There is no bonus check sent to the officer when they win a case. I don't really care what the judge decides. It's not my job to convict anyone. I just present my side of the case and let the judge make his ruling. It wouldn't bother me in the least if the judge threw out every ticket I ever wrote. A traffic ticket is nothing personal and I wouldn't waste any time worrying about why a judge found someone not guilty unless it was a mistake I made that resulted in the not guilty verdict. Then I would just learn from my mistake and move on.

Folks, this law was written to keep everyone a little safer. It's common sense that if you see lights flashing on the side of the road, you need to get as far away from them as possible or at least slow down to better react to the situation if something starts heppening in front of you.