Police response times to serious crimes have increased due to "budget/manpower" restrictions. However, TPD has sufficient budget and manpower to harrass operators of motorized bikes.
During the last two weeks, three people have told me that they were stopped by TPD officers for operating their bikes at 24-25mph, had their bikes IMPOUNDED, and received numerous associated citations. In each case, these individuals had previously lost their drivers licenses for various reasons, and their motorized bikes were their only means of transportation to their jobs.
I do not advocate breaking the law, but this is absurd beyond reasonable belief. The punishment in no way fits the "crime". I think that it is immoral for the government to target and screw people who are trying to put their lives in order.
The legal speed limit for a motorized bike is 19mph. If you are caught exceeding this, you can expect to be cited for operating a moped in a bike lane, having no registration, no insurance, and no drivers license (if you do not have one). In addition, your bike will be IMPOUNDED, with a costly process to recover it.
This type of gestapo police activity is an infringement on all of our freedoms, not just those driving motorized bikes. All who read this should demand of their city council representatives that that fathead TPD police chief be held accountable for the proper allocation of his funding resources and manpower for the protection of the community. Last year, 113 TPD officers earned more than $100,000 because of "overtime". Now we have cops with so much time on their hands that they have to harrass riders of motorized bikes. Time for the citizens to kick the asses of the bureaucrats wasting taxpayers money when we are all being pinched by the current economy. I don't want cops wasting my money busting people riding bikes, motorized or not!
I've read through this entire thread. This interests me because I'll soon be joining the ranks of MB riders, and living in Texas it looks like there might not be a way to do it legally.
I'm an expert at fighting tickets because in 45 years of riding motorcycles, and motorized devises on the streets I've received about 5 bazillion traffic tickets. My first ticket was less than 2 weeks after getting my license. I've learned it's best to always fight every ticket. President Clinton taught me that if you're not a lawyer, then you're not qualified to even know if you're guilty of any crime, in the eyes of the law. That's for the judge, or jury to decide. Always assume you're Innocent. Never admit to anything to a officer, except what you're required by law (name, address, insurance, etc).
Based on my understanding of the Arizona law, this is how I would fight this action.
First of all, plead not guilty. Always ask for a jury trial. A jury trial is such a pia to the court the prosecutor and judge are likely to offer to deal, especially for a piddly violation like this. Considering what they get paid an hour, even if they win the case, the city is likely to loose money. Also I don't know about Arizona, but in Texas the jury gets to set the fine. If you end up losing, often the fine a jury will set will be a lot less than the state allows.
Your first line of defense is the officer fails to show up. It happens more often than you might think. In that case you're innocent from lack of evidence.
If that fails it looks to me like the whole case depends on whether the MB was actually travailing over the legal speed of 20 mph? or not. If it wasn't, then the perp would not be guilty of any of the other suspected violations, right?
All that is necessary is to cast a shadow of doubt on the officers testimony. Since the officer says the MB was going 24
or 25 mph, that tells me it wasn't radar. If radar then it would be exactly some stated speed. Probably the officer is estimating the speed. He's probably just picking those numbers out of his rear end because he knows from experience that's how fast they go on average, and if he said anything faster it becomes harder to prove.
Try to get the officer to admit he estimated the speed. If he says yes, ask him what percentage of time he's wrong when he estimates a speed. If he says anything other than never, you're innocent because any percentage of time means theres a shadow of a doubt. OTOH if he says he's never wrong, the jury will have to decide if it's possible for anyone to never be wrong.
If the officer says he paced you in his squad car then you're probably going to lose, but the jury may still have a surprise for the court.
Have fun, and good luck.
