Got a ticket from Boston PD

[GreeCguy]

You definitely want to handle this properly. If you call or write the department about some crooked cop who isn't doing his or her job, you immediately put the department on the defensive. But if you call or write politely concerned that an error has happened and you don't want this on your driving record (even as a warning), you give the impression you are simply trying to take care of a mistake so that in the future, you are not held accountable for it. I would imagine with that approach, you're not coming to them with an axe to grind but are truly concerned about your driving record and your desire to keep it clear. I'm just guessing, but I get the impression you don't have a long list of tickets with law enforcement and therefore, with that kind of history, have the advantage of past driving responsibility and maturity on your side.

It would be an easy thing to let this go and forget about it, but if it were me, I would still pursue it for two reasons. I'd want my record clear and I would want to alert the department that something isn't quite right with one of their officers. Sitting at a desk writing tickets because it's easier than actual police work is not the way it's suppose to happen and again, gives a bad name to the honest police officers out there doing what they're suppose to do.

 

[GreeCguy]

As a side note, I would be curious if this officer saw an offending car of your kind and color breaking the law but didn't get the tag number, so what he or she did was to write a list of warnings to everyone he or she could find with that kind and color of car in an effort to "catch" the offending party. In other words, a black "model" "make" "year" car ran a stop sign so he looked up every black "model" "make" "year" car and sent a "warning" to every car that fit that description.

 

[Vikas]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
As a side note, I would be curious if this officer saw an offending car of your kind and color breaking the law but didn't get the tag number, so what he or she did was to write a list of warnings to everyone he or she could find with that kind and color of car in an effort to "catch" the offending party. In other words, a black "model" "make" "year" car ran a stop sign so he looked up every black "model" "make" "year" car and sent a "warning" to every car that fit that description.
I highly doubt that happening as all of those warnings have a serial number and somewhere somebody is going to question that practice. "What? You wrote 40 tickets at 8:35am??"

But I like your approach of sending the letter and wanting to clear our name. The only trouble is that they must be getting hundreds of these of "It wasn't me" or "I am innocent" type of mail and I am afraid they must be very cynical by this time.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: Vikas

It looks like the officer just searched for the vehicle database and wrote the ticket for the first match. It is highly unlikely that a this is a case of transposed plate number. I bet he pulled the list of grey 4-dr sedans on his computer and just picked this car randomly and then copied all the information including the registered owner and her driver's licence. I am almost certain that he had not got the plate of the offender. That officer should not be on the force. He is literally "mailing" it in


So people still think that the cops don't make mistakes or try to get revenge?
View this to the very end. Yes, the driver had a smart mouth, but the video clearly shows that he did not run a red light and the ticket should have been dismissed early. And this one was about money and going on the guy's record.
The irony was that they tracked down the cop at a nearby coffee shop....
BTW, I've got two family members who are in law enforcement. I hear all kinds of stunts that they laugh about.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2013...ight-ruckus.cnn

 

[GreeCguy]

There are good police officers who give people breaks all the time. Case in point. A couple of years ago, I was in Orlando Florida and got a phone call that a dear friend of mine had just been taken to the hospital and was going to die at any minute. It was late at night but I jumped in my car and burned up the roads all the way to the hospital. I was running wide open and sure enough, about a mile from the hospital, I got pulled over for speeding. I pulled to the side of the road, pulled out my license and held it out the window. When the officer came to my window, I told him, "write the ticket as fast as you can, I have a friend dying in the hospital and I'm trying to make it before he passes away." The officer looked at me and my license, gave it back to me and said, "I hope you make it." I got there just in time to say good bye.

 

[Vikas]

wow, looks like I have made lots of enemies here :-(

 

[JANDSZIRKLE]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Read his post: it is just a written warning.


Ah, yes. I'd still send in a note saying that the car was nowhere in the area.


I'd go one better, I'd find a local news show/newspaper that needed a hot local story. Provide proof of where you/she was that day and time, via work or debit card activity and let then run and dig it up.


That just happened here locally. Cops were sending tickets right and left, that has ceased since the local news station ran a week long "investigation" on the practices of the police department.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
wow, looks like I have made lots of enemies here :-(


Nah, just people with different opinions. One of the things I enjoy about bitog is the love we share. Now, if you want to make enemies and create a virtual riot, start a thread about how the police gave you a ticket while you were adding Marvel Mystery Oil to your oil and pouring Seafoam in your gas tank and adding a little Lubegard Red to your transmission.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
The only trouble is that they must be getting hundreds of these of "It wasn't me" or "I am innocent" type of mail and I am afraid they must be very cynical by this time.


I'm sure they do, but my guess would be 90 percent of those "innocent" victims call screaming and yelling. Those who write try to sound very intimidating. But if you are polite and reasonable, I'm sure they will appreciate that and work with you to clear this up. If you're going to act on this, you need to do so ASAP as the longer you wait the less high ground you have in the sense of "why did you wait so long to contact us?"

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
There is no point in making enemies with the authority. I am sure the higher up probably want the officers to write as many tickets as they can using any method legal or illegal.

Follow NHHEMI's advice. Write a polite letter outlining the situation. I doubt that any superior wants their officers to write as many tickets as they can, even using illegal methods. I don't know about the States, but up here, that's called abuse of process (not to mention breach of trust), and is extremely, extremely serious.

A police officer is entitled to be petty and write tickets for marginal offences. A police officer is entitled to make mistakes and have people they've charged end up acquitted. They aren't, however, entitled to make stuff up.

On the other hand, we don't know the officer's story, either. Did someone make a false complaint against your wife's vehicle? Perhaps the officer split things down the middle and decided the complaint was questionable, but issued the written warning (as opposed to a real ticket) to mollify the complainant without actually causing your wife real problems.

If a false complaint were laid and he wrote a real ticket, your wife could go to court and fight it and perhaps win. Perhaps the complainant could be charged for the false complaint. That is a lot of hassle though for everyone, not least of all your wife. The written warning eliminates a lot of hassle.

Think of the old man calling the police about his neighbour's stereo being a bit loud - it's definitely audible, but not a clear violation of whatever the local noise bylaw states. Does the officer write a ticket to the guy with the stereo? Does he tell the old man to quit being a curmudgeon and to suck it up? Or, does he just warn the guy with the stereo to turn it down and try to not unduly inconvenience both parties?

 

[Vikas]

As I said before, my wife has yet to drive this vehicle even though we purchased it in her name. I can categorically say that this vehicle has never been within 30 miles radius of Boston.

The only explanation is that officer did see a vehicle make the illegal maneuver and it was most likely a late dark grey colored 4-dr sedan. He then sat at his computer, pulled up a car, pulled up the owner, pulled up owner's driving license and hand wrote the ticket.

There is just no other possibility. But as many people have said, I am not going to write this in my letter. Hopefully, officer's superiors should be able to figure this out on their own. If that is the modus operandi for that officer, the superiors will be getting more letter like mine. Eventually the gig will be up.

 

[andyd]

Yah ,this happened to us. I figured it was a clerical error. the wrong registration number was entered. My wife appealed it and it was dismissed . IIRC

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
The only explanation is that officer did see a vehicle make the illegal maneuver and it was most likely a late dark grey colored 4-dr sedan. He then sat at his computer, pulled up a car, pulled up the owner, pulled up owner's driving license and hand wrote the ticket.

As I indicated, that would be grounds for serious disciplinary action up here, if that were the case. Aside from being dishonest, it's ridiculously lazy.

Up here, too, they have a standard that a written warning "should" be backed by the same evidence that would be required to successfully lay a charge. Otherwise, it's just cheating to make clearance rates go up. So, it would be interesting to see what evidence the officer has.

 

[Vikas]

The officer has zero evidence because neither the car nor the driver was within the 30 mile radius of the alleged place where this infraction happened.

Can anybody come up with any other explanation?

 

[doitmyself]

Any chance it could be a mal-function of the the license plate scanners that are becoming common in some cities:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/07/17/license-plate-scanners-aclu-privacy/2524939/

 

[JethroBodine]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
Originally Posted By: JethroBodine
Some idiot cop wrote the wrong plate number.

Yes you never made a mistake ever.....Letters go a long way that well formed.


You didn't get the severe nasty threatening tone of the collection letter. BTW, they got my letter and called me and then admitted the cop wrote down the wrong plate number and cancelled the ticket. They really had no choice. I am not upset that the cop made a mistake...but they have access to the BMV database that shows the plate is available. So they are just shaking down anyone without any research. Then when called on it fess up with the truth. So it really isn't a "mistake" now is it?

 

[Nate1979]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
The officer has zero evidence because neither the car nor the driver was within the 30 mile radius of the alleged place where this infraction happened.

Can anybody come up with any other explanation?


In business we call this fraud. In government I guess they call it.... normal operations.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
The officer has zero evidence because neither the car nor the driver was within the 30 mile radius of the alleged place where this infraction happened.

Can anybody come up with any other explanation?

That's my point. If you knew what the officer's rationale or evidence for writing this was, you'd have your explanation. As I stated the other day, it's very possible that someone made a false complaint, or a mistaken complaint.

If the officer says he saw your wife's vehicle doing this at this location and you know darned well the vehicle was never near that location, then the officer is lying or delusional. If he got a complaint from the public about the vehicle doing such a thing, the complaint is either malicious or mistaken.

 

[JHZR2]

It is a warning, so question #1 is if a warning shows up anywhere in any system or record, or if it is really just a way for a cop to not cite you for something and still give a hard time (or let you off if youre friendly).

If a warning really does not even show up in any record or book besides a cop's top shirt pocket spiral notebook, then I might not worry about it much.

Id just keep a paper trail to cover yourself for a while anyway.

If the record is indeed recorded someplace, then Id go on the offensive. Id go in person to the police station nearest to where this would occur, and ask to discuss with the chief or supervisor in charge. If that is not satisfactory, Id go after the mayor and councilpeople. Sure, in a big city that is all harder, but know how to play the game and youll get in touch.

 

[KitaCam]

Always CYA....ALWAYS....but politely and respectfully stating YOUR case and not making any presumptions regarding the actions or intentions of others.

I was once pulled over for ???? while driving the speed limit in the HOV lane during restricted hours...
The officer said after seeing my wife rise up from resting unseen in her seat that I was driving 80mph...in a 65mph zone...never came close to ever going over 65, soooo??????

She insisted on giving me a ticket even though I pointed at the nail in the front tire and said that I was monitoring my speed CONSTANTLY, and was in the fast lane to give me an "out" if the tire blew....I had nearly gone ballistic....

I took photos of the tire and made my case in writing to the court and the never had to go to court...the case was dropped when the officer didn't show...
I knew she had pulled me over for being a solo driver, but she wouldn't admit it when my wife sat up...she had lost face and was going to make me pay...some people are like that.