Calgary Police Speed Trap (Entrapment) - Country Hills Blvd East

[quazimoto]

No it's not entrapment as the others are saying. However, if he is tagging people for going above 50 in what clearly is not a 50 zone then you should be contacting CPS directly complaining that the officers is illegally pulling over vehicles for speeding that are speeding and you have proof.

I'm quite positive this is the type of activity CPS will not put up with simply because it can easily lead to bad publicity. I would seriously complain to CPS, contact the calgary herald with your photos and story and furthermore complain to your alderman how are police are using tactics like this which clearly are not justified.

It's one thing if they were writing tickets in that appropriate area but he clearly is not.

Secondly I noticed a post where a person said the maximum sign is a maximum speed. It's actually not. You can't go around driving 50km/h in a 70km/h thinking you can. It's just as bad if not WORSE than driving 90km/h in a 70km/h zone since it is inheritely more dangerous than speeding and is proven to actually lead to more accidents since the people that want to go the limit will usually going to a variety of lengths to attempt to pass you even if it's not necessarily safe. I had this happen to me just last night and I watched this guy in a truck pass this old lady who was driving 35 in a 50. He actually drove up on the side walk and went right past her. Also if you go 50km/h in a 70km/h zone with a cop behind you i'll be you money the cop will pull you over. Yet if your going 80km/h in that 70km/h zone they wont.


Fight the ticket to the end of the world though. Realize though this cop is being paid handsomely though to be in court with you. If i recall from my days with CPS they get paid double pay for 8 hours for being requested in to court. I would highly urge you though to put this into the herald so that others drivers that got caught doing this can realize they likely weren't in the wrong.

[hoyles]

Thanks quazimoto.

That's usually my reasoning for posting issues or going to such lengths to follow up on things. My last post was re: The Brick burned me, so I posted to serve warning to everyone else not to get burned (and see what others did when similar happened to them). So likewise in this case.

We watched this guy pull over vehicle after vehicle and they were all getting the same $280.00. Knowing that driving in the 60's will probably net you the same result, it's a good thing to keep in the back of your mind driving in that area.

If I prevented 1 single person from getting hit with not only a $280.00 fine, but an unjust $280.00 fine, it's worth the effort.

[Chris Ng]

Hoyles, Thanks for clearing up the placement of the signage.. I apologize for jumping to the conclusion that the yellow circled sign was the posted speed limit sign and not a speed limit change ahead sign... I had re-read your post a couple times and for some reason it was still no clear to me as to how the signage was set up so I drew my own conclusions...

[quazimoto]

Mleh you goto the media there is a good chance CPS starts taking a closer look at this officer. They do not condone tactics like this.

Some of the better officers I know actually really hate writing tickets unless there is something a person does that really creates a situation of danger. I would personally feel that people in our city have a right to know that police officers are resorting to tactics just like this for a cash crab.

I don't see how this is going to increase safety by writing out invalid tickets. I'm sure the OP is not the only person that is pissed off by this when they get a ticket. I could seriously see the officer writing a ticket IF a person is not slowing down. However since his speed was 70 and not 80+ I just can't see how they can seriously justify this sort of activity.

[hoyles]

No worries

I probably wrote it too quickly as I was thumbing through the pictures I took, irritated, while entertaining house guests, posting to beyond, checking for updates on my phone, etc, etc.

I'm happy to clarify anything. Wasn't posting this to shit-disturb or cause a commotion (probably should have scrapped the "entrapment" term as it looks like it's the wrong term to use, and could have kept my hummer comment to myself, but I think I'm legitimately in the right here.

The only visible 50-limit sign from my right turn yesterday (36th Ave-->CH Blvd NE) is the one in my pic. I drove back a second time to double check.

[DayGlow]

you should get disclosure of the ticket which will inlcude the officer's notes. The notes should include his position, position of the signs that he is enforcing and the distance from him that he measured your speed at.

FYI the laser gun can be setup in a gate mode so that it only measures speed between 2 sets of distances, useful to make sure that you aren't shooting outside of a speed zone.

If he is shooting out of the speed zone the ticket is invalid and should be faught.

[szw]

Isn't there a law in calgary that says a speed trap cannot be within a certain distance of a sign that has a new speed limit? I distinctly recall this being introduced and explained on the news in Calgary about a decade ago and thinking to myself "huh, thats good to know".

Originally posted by chkolny541


nope.

No one can back this up for me? I have such a vivid memory of watching these exact news segments for a couple days and even having conversations about it. Its bugging me now so where can I look this up to see if it exists or not? I would guess it would be about 6-8 years ago.

[SCHIDER23]

Damn I just finished reading all 5 pages LOL, Op good for you for going back and taking photos as proof, and like others have said you probably going to get this thrown out, hopefully you complain to the CPS about this police officer ticketing tactics.

[phil98z24]

OP, if this situation is as you describe then absolutely fight that ticket 150% the full way through. Regardless of his reasoning for being there and who agrees/disagrees with it, if he is giving out tickets for an offense that didn't happen then he needs to be called out on it.

I encourage you to fight it and let us know the results. As well, if he is giving out bogus tickets and causing shit for people I can't say I want to be working on the same team as him... it may be an honest mistake that he doesn't know he is making, but if he is in fact making that mistake he needs to be stopped.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by szw


No one can back this up for me? I have such a vivid memory of watching these exact news segments for a couple days and even having conversations about it. Its bugging me now so where can I look this up to see if it exists or not? I would guess it would be about 6-8 years ago.

there was a guy a few years ago that fought a photoradar ticket he got while traveling on northbound crowchild after he passed 17th ave.

the photo radar van was parked iirc 100m after the speed limit 70 sign.

guy took it to court and basically the judge upheld the ticket as the speed limit at and after the sign was 70kph, but did ream out the CPS stating that placing the speed trap so close to the reduction in speed sign was in poor taste.

[quazimoto]

That's a very common spot for radar on crowchild and 100 meters should be more than enough time to slow down a whole 10km/h. Going from an 80km/h to 50km/h zone and having the cop posted right at the sign where he's most likely taking invalid readings is just completely wrong. I doubt it's a mistake as the police always intentionally set everything up.

[hoyles]

I've done this drive 10x since being stopped - unfortunately, working in the daytime, it's dark when I get home - but this is the setup (with the signs/zones identified):




And this is to show the entire 50km zone the construction crew has in place:



(Before anyone comments on my hack photoshop job, yes, I've added the 50km sign that is next to the officer b/c the original is both too far left to be in the shot, and back on - but you can clearly see where the original sign is in relation to the officer in the first pic with signs in place)

[FraserB]

The red line in the second pic is placed wrong since the 50 zone does not go from sign to sign but cuts the road at a 90* angle

[colinxx235]

Originally posted by FraserB
The red line in the second pic is placed wrong since the 50 zone does not go from sign to sign but cuts the road at a 90* angle

ummmm he merely placed a diagonal line extending from corner to corner of the 50km zone.... try looking next time before posting

[hoyles]

I couldn't place it in the picture very well that way. Of course it goes along the road and not diagonal, but I think that way it explains it a bit better for the image than just a straight line along the road way that just goes halfway up the pic.

[FraserB]

Ok, so the 50 zone is pretty small then. My bad. Line is diagonally corner to corner.

[hoyles]

Yeah, so the entire 50km zone is like 150 yards and he's literally stopping people AT the 50 sign, meaning he's scanning their speeds upon their approach to the 50 zone (in the 80km zone), and not actually INSIDE the 50 zone.

By the time my vehicle was in the same position as the photo vantage point in picture #2, he was standing in the middle of the road where that flatbed truck is, pointing me over to the side.

[quazimoto]

I just don't get why they don't place a photo radar vehicle right smack in the middle of the zone which would work significantly better than the TRU police officer.

[phil98z24]

Originally posted by hoyles
Yeah, so the entire 50km zone is like 150 yards and he's literally stopping people AT the 50 sign, meaning he's scanning their speeds upon their approach to the 50 zone (in the 80km zone), and not actually INSIDE the 50 zone.

By the time my vehicle was in the same position as the photo vantage point in picture #2, he was standing in the middle of the road where that flatbed truck is, pointing me over to the side.

Yah, that is completely wrong. Either he doesn't get something, or there is something missing here - and from what I can tell, you have a pretty detailed account of the whole set up. Request disclosure; his notes should detail his distance from the 50 km/h sign, whether the sign was posted, visible, and clear, and at what distance he got your reading, along with where he estimated you were speeding so that he could verify it with the instrument.

If his notes read something like this (different numbers and everyone does it differently, but you'll get the idea):

Spd enforcement, eastbound CHB NE, 50k construction zone. 50k sign PVC north side of CHB, distance 15.2m west from position, 50k warn sign PVC north side CHB 18m west of position, 80k to 50k zone. Unit 4410 (or something), MPV/UMPV (marked or unmarked patrol vehicle). Then a whole whack of stuff about the laser, possibly a stamped portion that has all the info.. anyways!

Obs ACC VEH #1 lane leading, Black (or whatever) SUV, crest hill app. 50k zone, enter 50k zone est. spd. 70k, LASER aimed front middle bumper, spd. 69K, 17m west of position, stopped at blah blah blah.

If it reads something like that and the numbers don't add up because clearly he tagged you outside that zone, then the charge cannot stand. Request those notes, even go so far as to make your own measurements and see what you come up with.

[quazimoto]

Many TRU officers don't write any notes just because of the sheer number of tickets they will write during the course of the day. It's common for an officer to write notes on so many of the tickets he or she may write. If the officer did write any notes on the ticket though they are of interest to you. Traffic Court likely won't have the ticket for two weeks though.