Can a normal cop(street) stop you and give you a ticket on the highway?(i tho only highway patrol can do that)

Question

i was going 85 on the left lane on the highway and this street cop(not a highway patrol) stopped me and gave me a ticket for 326 dollars for going 30 over, which in miami you need to go to court if its 30 and over. but i've heard they cant give you a ticket only highway patrol can, and also i did sign the ticket but he did not give me the ticket afterwards, so now i guess i need to go to the police station to get it or something? but can they do that?

Answer 1

only if you are committing a crime.  you note that you were speeding, so you were wrong and you were caught.  pay the fine and mind the rules of the road.

Answer 2

Yes, they can.  

Answer 3

Depends on the state. In Arizona they can stop you but our state police has to issue the ticket.

Answer 4

You heard incorrectly. My agency has a long stretch of an interstate, also two state highways and a US highway. We write tickets on all of them, all the time. If the road is in the city limits of the city, it's fair game.

Some departments may discourage their officers from going up on the highway, but if an officer does observe a violation, they can legally act. It basically comes down to accidents. If an agency doesn't write tickets on the highways, then they can generally pawn off any accidents to the highway patrol. But if they are writing tickets, then they are expected to work any accidents that occur. No law or anything covers this, but it is generally the unwritten rule between local agencies and highway patrol.

Our Chief being both former highway patrol and a local officer for years strongly abides by that, if you want to work the highways, fine...go absolutely nuts out there. But you better not duck any accidents.

Other agencies may not work highways for resource issues (not enough people to work the highway and patrol) or there are actually a lot of cities that don't like the officers writing tickets. So traffic work is avoided most of the time.

As for not receiving the ticket. Some agencies still will mail you a copy. It's rare. Best to call the court, you don't want a warrant popping up because you missed court.

Answer 5

If his jurisdiction includes that stretch of highway, sure he can.  Also, you must remember that in many jurisdictions just the fact that he is driving a clearly marked patrol vehicle means that he is obligated to act if he sees an offense taking place.  The public expects it.  

If he didn't give you the ticket though, and you can prove somehow that you didn't receive a copy of it, it sounds to me like you were not properly served.  The courts cannot expect you to appear if you never received a copy of the ticket.  The hard part will be proving that you didn't get it though.  

If you are that concerned, go to the department involved, ask the questions you asked here and tell them the officer never gave you a copy of the ticket.  If you have his name or badge number I'd provide that info as well.  They should be able to get either a copy of the ticket for you or show that he was or was not working that day which may help your case as well.

Answer 6

He probably was within his rights as a law enforcement officer to ticket you for excessive speeding. As far as the copy of the ticket goes, that is something you would have to clear up with the police dept, or the city/county courts. Good Luck

Answer 7

He should have given you a copy.

Follow up and make sure it is for real.

Strange not giving you a copy.

I have never had a ticket in 58 years, but I know cops and have an FBI agent in family.

Been with cops and have seen them always give a copy.

Also the Arizona reply is not true.

What about the cameras ran by The City of Scottsdale for years?

Tempe police write tickets on the 60?