From Chicago - the land of expensive on-street parking, $100 red light camera citations, and now-more-infrequent CTA Bus Service - comes a new technology designed to generate more municipal and county revenue. The technology -
LIDAR - Speed Guns that work with high-tech Laser Beams, rather than old-fashioned Radar Waves - will now be allowed as evidence of Speeding Violations in Traffic Courts across Cook County IL, the county in which the City of Chicago is located.
In the City of Chicago itself, however, the jury on LIDAR Guns is still out. The city's Law Department is having its own hearing in March to determine if the newer, but not brand new, speed detection technology is admissible in Chicago Speeding Cases. However, the Cook County Ruling might bear good precedent, as will the successful use of the new Light Beam technology in nearby DuPage County IL, as well as across the states of Maryland, Idaho, Hawaii, and Washington.
As reported by Megan Twohey, Staff Reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Cook County IL Judge Eileen Burke did not have her own hearing on the acceptability of the LIDAR Speed Guns. Instead, she referred to precedent in the Illinois Appellate Court, which last month ruled that Speeding Tickets issued based on the findings of the Light Guns were admissible as evidence against the offending motorist.
Last year, before Burke's ruling, Cook County Courts threw out contested speeding tickets based on LIDAR Data, as it was not yet proven these devices were acceptably reliable. With the new ruling, however, such tickets would likely stick.
No longer reserved for Star Trek and other Science Fiction tales of the near and distant future, LIDAR is here today.
And, likely, if you speed in Chicago, it will make you pay up!
Please read our post today via BlogChicagoHomes.com.
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
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