To flash or not to flash?

Most of us have witnessed, participated or are at least familiar with the concept of flashing the headlights to warn others of upcoming radar traps. Drivers will then slow down and avoid being caught speeding. Some drivers may be a little apprehensive to do this because they believe it is against the law by obstructing a police officer on duty. It is not illegal.

According to police and other officials, there is nothing in the provincial legislation to prevent drivers from flashing their headlights to warn oncoming traffic. There are cases where drivers have been charged under the Highway Traffic Act for alternating flashing headlights typically used by emergency vehicles. These charges are often dismissed in court.

Sgt Cam Wooley of the OPP says, “It’s not an offence under the Highway Traffic Act in Ontario… drivers are free to communicate with each other.” That does not mean that you cannot be pulled over. An officer may believe that the driver is in distress, may require medical attention, may be warning about a situation ahead such as an accident, or they may be something wrong with the vehicle. The officer may pull you over and question your intentions; they may even ask to perform a full inspection of your vehicle.

The most common charge is improper use of high beams at night. With this charge only valid at night, the officer would not be able to use it at all during any day-time hours. If you are one of those drivers who feels obligated or compelled to warn your fellow motorists of a radar trap, you may actually be free and clear to do so. Like with many other situations, it can depend on the specific officer who pulled you over. According to their discretion, they may try to find a way to write you a traffic ticket. If you happen to be one of those unlikely drivers, contact Traffic Ticket Solutions and we can help you build a strong and solid defence and work on getting your traffic ticket eliminated.

Celebrities Get Traffic Tickets Too!

With the T.I.F.F happening in Toronto, the city is abuzz with celebrity fever. In our societies search to humanize celebrities, we, as a society, are always looking for anything that we can find to let us know that these stars are not much different from ourselves. Fame and fortune doesn’t always help to get what you want and there are many stories and even videos of celebrities receiving traffic tickets! From simple parking tickets and speeding tickets to Racing and DUI offences, celebrities have seen it all…and the paparazzi is always willing to share it with the public!

Video of Jessica Alba being pulled over by a cop

Cricketer Harbhajan Singh gets traffic ticket

True TV: 15 Celebrities that got tickets

David Beckham receives traffic ticket

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL gets traffic ticket

Cops Get Paid Overtime to Be Present in Court

We get a lot of clients calling us that seem to be debating hiring legal representation because the officer told them to fight the ticket in court. One of our clients had indicated to us that the officer was pleasant, but still gave her a speeding ticket and told her to choose the trial option on the back of the ticket and to be present at court. She was still undecided on if she was going to hire representation to defend her case because of the officer’s statement, thinking that he may have been trying to indicate that he would not show up for the court date. She called looking for our advice on whether we believed the officer would show up in this sort of situation, and if he did, why would he tell her to be present the way that he did?

Unfortunately, there is no way for us to predict if an officer will be present or not on the day of your trial. Over the past few years we have noticed an increase in the number of officers that ARE present in court, with evidence in hand.

The Toronto Star recently published an article indicating that many officers are attending court because it is now so lucrative to do so. The article stated that, “under the Toronto Police Association collective agreement, police officers who attend court as witnesses during a scheduled off day are paid a minimum four hours at 1.5 times their basic wage, even if the appearance lasts for 10 minutes. Officers receive three hours of pay at time and a half if they appear in court before beginning a regularly scheduled shift.”

In a bulletin from the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, it seems that the number of officer’s that are benefiting from this overtime is growing rapidly. In 2008, 1,006 employees of the Toronto police service earned over $100,000; 628 of which saw that amount because of a combination of their base salary (under $100,000) and the premium pay, overtime and call backs. The number of highly paid officers is climbing quickly if you take into consideration that in 2004 (only 4 years ago) the number of officers earning more than $100,000 was only 250 and in 2006 it almost tripled that amount to 708.

“ It’s the best game in town”, a retired police officer said in reference to the overtime pay that officers can receive for court appearances. The city pays out around 6 million dollars a year for overtime costs to police officers that attend court.

The Toronto Police Accountability Coalition bulletin also indicated that the number of police services employees earning over $100,000 has increased from 3.5% in 2004 – 14% in 2008. This includes uniformed officers and civilian staff. What is not indicated is how much of that 14% is made up of civilian staff, the number of uniformed staff that has a base salary of over $100,000 to begin with and of the remainder, what percentage of their pay is made up of court appearance overtime as opposed to on duty overtime and bonuses.

Back to the initial question of, “the officer told me to go to court…does that mean he won’t show up?”, that we were speaking about before. Keep in mind that just because the officer told you to go to court does not mean that your ticket is false, invalid or made up by the officer. If you are breaking the law and the officer is getting paid to uphold that law in court, you will need to think about your responsibility in the matter before you take the position that, “the officer is just in it for the money” would be a valid defence for your case. Remember that an excuse or explanation is NOT a valid defence for a ticket and if the officer is present, you will need to prove that you are innocent of the offence.

At Traffic Ticket Solutions, we will review the officer’s disclosure, prepare a defence for your matter, try to find any errors in law and search for any applicable motions to help increase the chances of having your ticket reduced or eliminated. We urge everyone to not base their defence on the luck of the draw, especially when demerit points, high fines and the state of your licence is involved! We can make sure that your case is given the best chance to be reduced or even eliminated completely from your record whether the officer is present or not!

OPP Officer Charged with Falsely Charging Drivers with Stunt Driving

In late May 2009, 12 year veteran of the OPP, Sgt. Dennis Mahoney-Bruer, 49, was charged with 3 counts of breach of trust and one count of attempting to obstruct justice for allegedly charging three drivers with false speeding and/or stunt driving tickets. The OPP have not released any information on what the catalyst may have been to trigger the investigation or what Mahoney-Bruer’s motive was, but The Toronto Star reported that “owners and managers of Mississauga towing companies say OPP detectives have been asking them if they had ever paid Mahoney-Bruer to use their services or heard about Mahoney-Bruer allegedly receiving kickbacks from other towing companies.”

Since the charges were laid, Mahoney-Bruer was suspended with pay and was scheduled to appear in court on July 13th 2009. Information on the proceedings of this court date has yet to be released.

Since this incident first came available to the public, we at Traffic Ticket Solutions have received numerous calls from concerned clients wondering if this could happen with one police officer, could the officer that charged them be wrong too? As in any profession, obviously human error can occur when police officers issue traffic tickets. If they didn’t, services such as ours would not exist! Clients hire us because they feel an injustice has been done and to find any mistakes an officer may have made in the process in issuing them the ticket. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the officer’s intentionally make these mistakes, but human error is unavoidable and the case of Mahoney-Bruer is definitely not the norm.

Two of the allegedly false charges laid were Section 172.1 of the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) Stunt Driving / Speed Racing. Included with this charge is an immediate roadside licence suspension of 7 days and roadside vehicle seizure, leaving the accused and all occupants of the car on the side of the road to find another form of transportation. It is no secret that speed racers and stunt drivers are a danger to all drivers and harsh penalties should be enforced to stop the unnecessary deaths caused by these situations. Unfortunately these racers are most often not the ones being stopped for the new section 172 Stunt Driving law. The majority of the people we see charged with these offences are everyday people that made an inadvertent error. We aren’t saying that makes it right, however we also believe that this law could be supplying too much power to the charging officers. In Ontario, you are innocent until proven guilty, so why does this law grant the officer the ability to asses your guilt on the spot and suspend your licence and impound your car for 7 days? What if you are found innocent of the charge because of an officer’s mistake like the three wrongly accused by Mahoney-Bruer? You would still be responsible for all of the towing and impounding fees for your car, not to mention any monetary loss you may have incurred not being able to drive to work or school, etc. We have seen these losses climb into the thousands of dollar range for some of our clients. That is a pretty big loss for someone who may have not done anything wrong! This doesn’t even cover the possibility that the car does not even belong to the offending person. John Doe may have been Racing at 50 over the limit while driving his friends car that he took without permission. Now we have a situation where his friend, who had absolutely nothing to do with the incident, is being punished for Joe’s behavior. Higher fines are one matter, but having an officer being able to be the judge, jury and executioner to decide someone’s guilt at the roadside is too much power, in our opinion and the situation going on right now with Mahoney-Bruer is a perfect example of this.
The Toronto Star has also reported that “OPP spokesperson Insp. Dave Ross said police are working with the Crown to withdraw charges laid against the three drivers by Mahoney-Bruer. Ross said the force is also reviewing other charges where Mahoney-Bruer was involved as an investigator, but ‘we haven’t yet determined the scope of that review.’”

If you have an upcoming court date for a ticket laid by Sgt. Dennis Mahoney-Bruer or a past ticket that you were found guilty of, Traffic Ticket Solutions can help. Call us at 1.877.TTS.WINS for a free consultation and quote for your case.

Below are some links to news stories regarding Sgt. Dennis Mahoney-Bruer:

Jun 05, 2009 The Toronto Star
“250 Cases Under Review in OPP Officer Probe”

June 4, 2009 The Toronto Star
“OPP Asks if Tow-truck Firms Paid Off Policeman”

May 30, 2009 The Toronto Star
“Officer Accused of Falsely Charging Drivers”

May 29,2009 CBC News
“OPP Officer Charged With Obstruction of Justice”