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Beating A Ticket With Google Maps And Some Free Stolen WiFi
from the thank-you-technology dept
The one traffic ticket I received, many years ago, involved running a stop sign which I didn't run (I'm one of those annoying folks who believes in complete stops at stop signs, not even rolling stops -- and this stop sign had a cop hiding down the street for the previous three months, so I was especially careful there). I went to court to fight it, but it was my word against the cops. In fact, in the description the cop gave to the court, he described how I drove past the sign warning that there was a stop sign ahead -- which was impossible, because that sign is actually before the street I had turned from (the street on which I lived). However, the judge took the officer's word -- which is what you'd expect him to do. However, it looks like traffic violators everywhere are getting more tools to fight such misstatements. Boing Boing points to a case in Manhattan where someone used an available WiFi signal to call up Google Maps and show that the road he was on was a two-way road, rather than a one-way road, as the ticketing officer had claimed. Of course, that means the judge had to be convinced that Google Maps accurately showed which roads are one way -- but it at least seemed credible. Still, as Mark at Boing Boing notes, the guy in question could, conceivably, now be accused of stealing WiFi.
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An answer to your sidebar...
When it's your word against a cop, a judge is almost always going to give the cop the benefit of the doubt. If you don't have some sort of hard evidence, or a lawyer, you're going to lose.
Consequently, it's about $300 to fight a speeding ticket with counsel. Whereas, two points on your license as a young individual in Michigan will cost you about $1200 over 3 years on a newer vehicle if you have anything more than PL/PD coverage... It really brings new life to the phrase "The man who represents himself has an idiot for a client".
But then IANAL...
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