KU professor fights speeding ticket

Zamir Bavel hopes his effort will set an example for students

By By Stephen Lynn (Contact)

Friday, August 26, 2005

Moving violations and parking tickets are inevitabilities of driving, and most people plead guilty and pay the fines.

Not Zamir Bavel.

He claims he was not speeding and has been attempting to prove it.

“People should know, especially students, that fighting is not a lost cause,” said Bavel, professor of computer science at the University of Kansas.

Number of traffic tickets given by the Lawrence Police Department

1999: 20,579

2000: 17,975

2001: 15,624

2002: 16,677

2003: 18,327

2004: 24,008

Source: Lawrence Municipal Court

Bavel has been working pro se, or without attorney, in district court to prove his innocence by demonstrating that an officer of the Lawrence Police Department did not receive adequate training to use a radar gun, he said.

In municipal court, he was found guilty of speeding near the intersection of W. 19th Street and Ousdahl Road, in March 2004.

If he wins in district court in late September he will avoid a $45 fine, and gain vindication. So far he has spent nearly $1000 defending himself, and said he was hoping to create a landmark case law.

He spent the bulk of the $1000 on a polygraph test, which turned out to be inadmissible in Kansas court, he said.

“It should not cost anything, especially with my help and advice, which anyone can get for free,” Bavel said.

For his efforts, Bavel has received local and national attention, including interviews with media organizations and numerous phone calls and e-mails.

“I can’t cross the street without people encouraging me,” he said. “Everybody likes the idea of fighting for the good man and improving the Lawrence Police Department.”

Traffic tickets given in Lawrence have increased during the past two years, but trials contesting these tickets have not.

Tickets, not trials

On Oct. 1, 2002, Lawrence created a traffic unit with a $2.2 million federal grant, said Sgt. Dan Ward of the Lawrence Police Department. The unit included seven vehicles, six officers and one sergeant.

Traffic tickets given by the Lawrence police department decreased from 20,579 in 1999 to 15,624 in 2001. But since 2002 tickets increased from 16,677 to 24,008 in 2004.

These days, Lawrence police continue to issue more traffic citations, said city prosecutor Jerry Little. But the number of trials has not increased, he said.

If people do choose to fight their tickets, many represent themselves, Little said. That officers don’t often appear in court is a misconception, he said.

“Officers show up 99 percent of the time,” Little said. “If they don’t show, they’re at risk of losing their jobs.”

The more common scenario is that a prosecutor would lessen the charge from a moving violation to a parking violation, he said. This prevents an insurance company from raising rates. Fines increase with each citation, he said.

Speeding tickets are difficult to defeat, Little said. One has to prove that the radar gun was wrong or that an officer did not receive sufficient training, he said.

The trial

Operating a radar gun is a complicated task, Bavel said.

Before police operate radar guns, they should receive 24 hours of classroom instruction and 16 hours of field supervision, according to a training manual written by the National Highway Traffic Safety Authority, he said.

The Lawrence Police Department has no set training requirement, Little said.

“We’re not required to follow their recommendations,” Little said. “There’s no law that says we have to follow them.”

When Bavel cross-examined the officer who gave him the ticket, the officer said he had no classroom instruction and little field supervision, he said. The officer had been issuing traffic citations for nine years, Bavel said.

The officer had been trained and certified at his old job and at a law enforcement academy he attended, Little said.

“The judge has to decide whether he has training and field experience,” Little said.

Errors in measurement of a vehicle’s velocity can occur when an untrained officer operates a radar gun, Bavel said. For instance, a radar gun’s reliability decreases significantly when an officer fires it at a car from an angle approaching 90 degrees. Even power lines and power stations could skew results, he said.

Ward said he could not comment on how radar guns function because of Bavel’s ongoing trial.

Though Bavel said he had acquired some knowledge of radar gun operation, his lack of legal expertise showed.

“I know the judge must be irritated by my mistakes in the courtroom. He has bent over backwards to allow for the fact that I do not have legal experience,” he said.

The judge has also accommodated needs related to Bavel’s hearing loss, he said.

“He allowed me to come close, as long as I didn’t intimidate the witness,” he said.

— Edited by Kellis Robinett

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