Complaint Review: City of Federal Way

City of Federal Way Traffic Enforcement Division sent a ticket for speeding in a school zone to my parents and they were concerned that they could lose their license to drive.  So I said I would have been the driver and refer the ticket to me.  Soon after a ticket came in the mail with me being charged with the infraction.  I studied the photos, couldn't view the video, and filed for a contested hearing to be set.
 

I calculated out the distance that a vehicle would travel at the legal speed in one second.divided that by two because the time lapse between the two photos was .5 seconds (half a second) and this gave me the actual feet that should show in the photo2 when comparing it to photo1 as the start photo.  The distance calculated out to be 14.666 Ft. /.5 second.

 Upon reviewing the photos I found that the vehicle shown in the picture was traveling at the safe and legal speed limit. By measuring the marks on the pavement I was able to see that it was within the speed limit and not travelling at the exagerated rate of speed shown by the photo enforcement system and the officer claiming to have reviewed it. 

I felt confident that this information alone would guaranteee me a not guilty decision when I went to court.  I was still unable to see the video but wasn't concerned because of the strength of my argument with the two pictures.  Upon the day of court I was brought before a protem judge that opened the case by inviting me to view the video. She asked whether I was speeding of which I said no.  Whereupon she continued to ask why my vehicle appeared to be faster than the other vehicles. I said that maybe they were going slower than the speed limit.  Because that was no admission of speeding just because the video shows me as going faster than the other cars.  I explained to her that my car could be proved to be not speeding by measuring the distance  travelled against what it should be travelling at.  She then replied that we would watch the video one more time, make closing statements and then she would announce here decision. 

Upon finish of the video I made my final argument pertaining to the photos showing me to be legal and she made hers with the idea that the video proved I was speeding. She then found me guilty of the crime.  She did not take a recess to calculate my findings or anything of the sort.  This entire hearing took approximately five minutes or less.

She purgered herself in claiming that the video showed the lights flashing and speed limit signs.  After the court session I reviewed the video and found no signs or flashing or not flashing lights anywhere in the video.  This leads me to believe that maybe this wasn't even taken during the school hours since this speed limit is only enforceable during school hours and specifically during school arrival, lunch, and leaving from school times.  while the school crossing guards are only present for twenty minutes the flashing lights and fines are tallied for a full thirty minutes and maybe more. with no one verifying the times the lights could stay on longer  or photo enforcement may take pictures at times when it shouldn't be operating.