On afternoon of 9 Oct. 2015 traveling south on I75 I was pulled over by a Tift Count, Ga. deputy. I was told I was traveling 85 in a 70 mph zone. I was timed by a laser. A sheriff’s patrol car was sitting on the overpass running the laser. Another deputy was sitting on the on-ramp as chase car. This deputy is the one who wrote the ticket. He was alerted by the deputy running the laser as to my vehicles description. Georgia law requires city and county police vehicles to be visible at least 500 ft. at time of contact by laser and reading of speed. Because of the railing across bridge overpass and the slim line blue lights mounted on top of sheriffs vehicles the patrol cars are not visible for the required 500 ft. Therefore, this type activity must be considered illegal and designed to trap motorists, thus a “speed trap”.
Case law requires the deputy to swear to your speed. He can not do so legally because he did not see you or your vehicle “speeding”. Another deputy, not the writer, got the speed of the vehicle and relayed the speed to the chase car.
When questioned, the deputy said all the above had been tried in court and failed. He also said the Ga. Attorney General had come to Tifton, checked it all out and gave his approval. I checked the Attorney General’s web site and found no truth to this statement.
Oh, bye the way, I was speeding as charged. Just the first time ever!