How Officers Try to Confirm if a Driver is Texting Behind the Wheel

How Officers Try to Confirm if a Driver is Texting Behind the Wheelblog submitted by staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets. 

Commissioner Joe Farrow of the California Highway Patrol speaks of the challenges officers face when trying to obtain visual confirmation that a driver is texting while driving.

The Huffingtonpost.com reported, in California, among other states, spotting a driver tapping on a cell phone isn’t enough to issue a ticket: Law enforcement officers must get visual confirmation that the driver is exchanging a digital message on his or her phone — all while they’re driving beside the suspected offender in a marked patrol car, Farrow explained.

“I have to pull up alongside of you, watch you, see you and testify in court that I saw you with your phone, texting or reading messages in the car,” Farrow said following the annual meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit organization that represents the nation’s highway safety offices. “We do write a significant number of citations, but it’s a bit more difficult than people think because we have to be able to testify in court that you were doing that, rather than just holding the device.”

California’s anti-texting law, which went into effect in 2009, prohibits drivers from writing, sending or reading “text-based communication” on any “electronic wireless communications device,” which makes it illegal to text, compose an email, share a photo on Instagram or “like” someone’s Facebook status while at the wheel.

Yet the law is narrow enough that it’s not technically illegal to look up a contact on one’s cellphone or pick a song on iTunes, meaning officers must see what a driver is doing on a smartphone before they can issue a citation. If they can’t see that the driver is messaging, their citation isn’t likely to hold up in court.

“Some people argue, ‘I wasn’t texting, I was just holding [the phone] in my hand,’” Farrow said. “I have to be able to convince a judge that I did see you [texting] within a reasonable doubt you were doing it.”   –  blog submitted by staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets. 

If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at www.staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud or call us at (800) 850-8038.  For Spanish, please visit www.Combatesuticket.com or call (818) 584-3689.  For more information on how TicketBust can help to beat your cell phone ticket, visit www.fightcellphonetickets.com or call (800) 850-8038.

This blog was written to provide information related to traffic tickets in California, is based on opinion only, is not legal advice, and is for informational purposes only. 

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