tdoh

Not TL-S related but just wanted to relay something that could very well happen to any of you guys...

I was talking to a buddy of my bro who got cited by CHP for some minor fix-it ticket stuff. "So?", you ask? Well, here's the deal--the buddy had his truck parked in one area of what was previously assumed to be a private parking lot and was just moving his truck from this parking lot to the area behind my bro's shop. At no time did the guy move his truck onto the public street to get to the shop. CHP was sitting across the street, saw all this go down, then made his move.

The buddy was asking the officer how he could cite him even though his truck was on supposedly private property and had never left it when the officer came over. Supposedly, the answer was that one may think a parking lot in front of a business establishment is private property, but if it's an area where the general public has free unrestricted access, then LEOs can go there too if they need to do an enforcement stop, regardless of whether or not the infraction took place on a public street or highway.

So, what's your take on this? Legal or bogus (being cited even though infraction didn't take place on a street)? I think everybody agress that residences are clearly private property but what about your typical gas station, grocery store, or mall? I do know that some malls do have private property signs and that even cops can't just enter as they please (e.g., drive through the mall parking lot) unless requested to by mall management.

Tony

ymckoon

I dunno man sorry.

But I do know this. If you already know you're going to get a ticket, you can demand that his watch captain come out before he issues you a ticket. One thing is it's a pain in the a$$ for both the watch captain and the officer to wait and come out to that location.

Secondly, you can take your ticket up to the actual captain of the police station. He has the authority to dismiss it I think. Those guys are supposedly cool for public relations and might dismiss it if you talk to him nicely.

I don't know what i said is true or not. i have not tried it, but someone in traffic school once told me this. Maybe you can try and let us know? Good luck

tdoh

Well, it wasn't me who got the ticket; in any case, the guy got written up for a bunch of minor stuff. Lucky for him the cop was in a decent mood and marked them all up as fix-it tickets.

Some other fix-it ticket related tidbits:

--This may sound obviously stupid, but if you're unfortunate enough to get more than one fix-it infraction on your ticket, it would be in your best interests to get them taken care of in court at the same time, rather than one at a time. Again, this sounds like a no-brainer but the same CHP guy I was talking to about this said that apparently there are some people out there in situations like these who get multiple fix-it infractions, take care of one but can't take care of the others right away for whatever reason, then go to court to get it taken care of. Apparently if you go to court separately for each instance you supposedly are docked higher court fees just for the fact that you're taking up the courts' time by coming in let's say 3 times instead of taking care of all 3 at once.

--Dunno about this one, but just because an infraction may be a fix-it ticket-type infraction--if the cop doesn't mark it on the ticket as such, then supposedly you can't get it signed off as one.

Tony

samzilla

that's sounds odd... a girl rearended me in a parking lot in front of my friend's tattoo shop in my old accord, and the cop said he could not write any tickets since the accident happened on private property

wakkolio

Very odd

pianoman41

Every state is different. Here in MA, some things like speed limits and street signs (stop, etc) can't be enforced on private property unless they're approved by the state. So if a mall parking lot has a speed limit of 20 and you're going 40, chances are that's not enforceable by the local police. BUT, some things are. If you're caught driving drunk in that same mall parking lot you can be arrested just as if you were on the road.

Same with your license. If your license gets suspended or revoked in MA, you cannot drive *anywhere* and this includes your own property. Even if you had a big farm field you owned behind your house with a dirt race track set up on it. If you were caught driving you could be charged (and even arrested) for driving with a suspended/revoked license.

kensteele

The pianoman is correct. It's all up to your state, the situation, the cop, the law, etc.

If you are in the mall and you run a stop sign and plow into another car (who didn't have a stop sign), who's at fault?

If you license plate has expired and a motorcycle cop sees you parking in the McDonald's parking lot, will your car get ticketed/towed?

Do you need to have a State-issued driver's license in your possession while driving on company-X business complex?

If the laws says turn your headlights on when it rains, does that include on the local college campus?

I think you can probably figure out the private property actually doesn't mean as much as you think when it comes to law enforcement. It does mean a lot more when it come to liability.

Bottom line is forget about trying to evade the law by using private property. It won't work.

EricL

You can look over at the Cal Department of Motor Vehicles and it looks like every search related to "private property" leads to a vehicle code that gives "police" the authority to check out a licensed vehicle.


(If you had filed a Certificate of Nonoperation, you might have a shot...)

Here is the link to the Cal DMV search site:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/htsearch/index.htm


Most of the codes have a small snippet relating to the ability of the peace officer being able to "end up" on private property to "enforce" the law.

So, if you even had the vehicle on sidewalk, road, or alley for a microsecond, you would be in for trouble. Finally, by licensing the vehicle for "public road use" you are agreeing to be bound by those laws...

tdoh

Figures...it's amazing how much obscure code is in the CVC.

Reminds me of the time that I almost outpointed a CHP when he asked me if I knew the VC regarding vehicle ride height, specifically when applied to lowered vehicles; I mentioned the wheel rim rule and he got me back with the headlight height rule. After all that, he let me go with a warning so I wasn't about to say anything more

Tony