Final Word from a Traffic Officer.
I Have been reading your site and cant resist having a little chuckle at the comments on your "Avoid that ticket" page.
"Police officers also read this page and know most if not all the dodges"
I would make a personal comment that it matters not if people contest the speed at the scene, it happens all of the time. If the equipment has been tested properly then there should be no problem.
More often if a speed is contested and the defence requests an expert witness then they will end up paying the bill if found guilty. This is what happened in the case of the individual who ended up with legal expenses totaling £15.000 contesting the accuracy of the LTI 20-20 in 1999.
Remember your chances of being found not guilty at Court are very very slim.
If you genuinely believe that you are innocent, then please fight it, but if not be warned that it can cost you dear. I would add that I believe that police officers should use the equipment properly because motorists are NOT criminals they are in most cases decent people who have infringed Traffic Law.
If you state that you checked your speedometer and it did not say the same as the speed detection it matters not because the defence can only challenge the operation and accuracy of the device being used. There is no obligation for the police officer to show the recorded speed, because in the case of a follow check that would not be possible and in any event the officers will not reveal when a device was last calibrated other than in Court.
I accept that we do show the speed recorded as a matter of best practice and in cross examination this can be confirmed with the defence as this will strengthen the prosecution case as to being open and honest. Not all a one way street when it comes to tactics? As for trying to get the officer to let you off a speed, it will most likely fail, if you are stopped you will almost certainly receive a ticket or a summons and any admission that perhaps your attention wandered might leave you open to a more serious offence, perhaps Driving Without Due Care and Attention?
I guess we might be impressed with a really original excuse but you'll have to be good as we've heard just about every combination going and in most languages including sign, repeatable and otherwise. I would say that when someone becomes abusive a professional officer will not react other than remain calm and deal with the individual as he should.
At the end of the day just being really honest might just do the trick because then no one feels insulted or undermined, not the police officer because he knows and not the driver because he knows. A very remote possibility but its human nature and there are no hard and fast rules.
Whatever peoples views are, unless drivers and riders take a slightly different approach to speed then the chances of losing your licence will increase as the speed limits decrease, it is already happening.