Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones • Hacker News Board

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#141

Post by CodeAndCuffs » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:15 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #106

jmisavage wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're out of date as of 2020. Reckless driving is 20 mph over the speed limit or over 85 mph now. It's a class 1 misdemeanor. Most of Virginia has 65 mph as the stated speed limit which usually drops to 55 mph around cities. There are stretches of I-95 and I-81 were the speed limit is 70 mph. But anyone who drives here knows that the speed limit is generally considered the slowest you should go on the road. Speeding…

I regularly drive at speeds in excess of 100mph when highways are empty and waze shows no police. What would be the fate of a person caught at those speeds in Virginia?

Reckless driving in VA is a class 1 misdemeanor. Punishable by confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both.[1]

That said, many things are a class 1 misdemeanor. Usually reckless driving is a fine similar to that of speeding. I've seen judges with stances like "1 day in jail for every mph over X" where X is usually 90,95, or 100. I think the most I've ever heard of was like 3-5 days for 100mph+, and even that was served on weekends.

Well, I heard of one guy who was given 3 months for 76 in a 55 by a very old substitute judge, much to the defendant's, Trooper's, and clerk's shock. The Trooper made it a point talk to the defendant and inform he could talk to the court clerk about the appeal process. The defendant appealed it down to a fine of around $150.

[1]https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter1/secti...

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#142

Post by woodruffw » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:15 PM UTC

warning26 wrote: post #137

woodruffw wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am someone who's extraordinarily sympathetic to journalists. But I don't think there's really any excuse for going 93 miles an hour on a country road marked for 55, as this author did. Should he have been sent to jail for it? I don't think so. But it's remarkable how acceptable that behavior seems to be.

Eh, I don't think speed limits really should exist in any context. If you want people to go slow, design the roads for slower driving, don't just impose arbitrary limits.

Speed limits are a blunt instrument, because "slow" isn't the real goal: the goal is to get people to drive safely, and one way they currently don't do that is by driving at reckless speeds (regardless of what the limit happens to be.)

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#143

Post by CodeAndCuffs » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:18 PM UTC

cjrp wrote: post #58

hammock wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is accurate. Your vehicle is not allowed to be equipped with a radar detector that is powered or accessible to the driver. The police even have radar detector detectors.

I can’t be the only one thinking “so how do you build a radar detector detector detector?”

Some Troopers have a Radar-detector detector (such as the VG-2).

There are Radar Detectors that have VG-2 (Radar detector detector) detectors on them.

I haven't heard of a radar detector detector detector detector. Such a thing would be pretty useless for a cop's intent and purposes.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#144

Post by shadowgovt » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:18 PM UTC

warning26 wrote: post #137

woodruffw wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am someone who's extraordinarily sympathetic to journalists. But I don't think there's really any excuse for going 93 miles an hour on a country road marked for 55, as this author did. Should he have been sent to jail for it? I don't think so. But it's remarkable how acceptable that behavior seems to be.

Eh, I don't think speed limits really should exist in any context. If you want people to go slow, design the roads for slower driving, don't just impose arbitrary limits.

You play pick your speed limit in the wrong place in Chesterfield county, you'll discover that those speed limits are where they are because the roads haven't been updated since they originally had asphalt laid down.

It was a very specific road near where I grew up. Nice and flat. Looked like you could do any speed you wanted. People routinely did 55. Posted was 30.

Near one end of the road was a tree slowly pushing a tree root underneath the road. This followed into a sharp curve bordered by a second, ancient tree.

The neighborhood lost about one person every 6 months who got complacent driving that road faster than speed limit and then got decapitated when they hit that tree root, their car went airborne, rotated 90°, and the top half of the passenger space intersected the ancient tree down the road.

DOTs get no budget to reshape a bad road and do the best they can to try and keep us from killing ourselves out there.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#145

Post by cycomanic » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:19 PM UTC

cryptonector wrote: post #133

cycomanic wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps you are in Europe, where speed limits are generally just the natural speed for the roads they're posted on, and the roads are designed for natural speeds that are appropriate for their uses. Lucky you, if so. What are you talking about? With the exception of Germany all countries in Europe have maximum speed limits and I have no idea what you mean by natural speeds. Sweden which has highways that are in bet…

Your roads are often designed with natural speed control devices. Things like making them narrow, or lining them with trees, etc.

Highways certainly have not, and for other roads it highly depends, just like in the US. But the Bundestrassen in Germany (the next larger roads after highways) have a speed limit of 100km/h and are very straight and definitely not artificially narrowed.

I'm actually not aware of any roads without a specific lane separator (like highways) that have speed limits above 100km/h in Europe (I certainly could be wrong though).

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#146

Post by Spooky23 » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:19 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #106

jmisavage wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're out of date as of 2020. Reckless driving is 20 mph over the speed limit or over 85 mph now. It's a class 1 misdemeanor. Most of Virginia has 65 mph as the stated speed limit which usually drops to 55 mph around cities. There are stretches of I-95 and I-81 were the speed limit is 70 mph. But anyone who drives here knows that the speed limit is generally considered the slowest you should go on the road. Speeding…

I regularly drive at speeds in excess of 100mph when highways are empty and waze shows no police. What would be the fate of a person caught at those speeds in Virginia?

Potentially a misdemeanor. Big waste of your time and money, with potential career impacts.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#147

Post by nh2 » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:20 PM UTC

warning26 wrote: post #137

woodruffw wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am someone who's extraordinarily sympathetic to journalists. But I don't think there's really any excuse for going 93 miles an hour on a country road marked for 55, as this author did. Should he have been sent to jail for it? I don't think so. But it's remarkable how acceptable that behavior seems to be.

Eh, I don't think speed limits really should exist in any context. If you want people to go slow, design the roads for slower driving, don't just impose arbitrary limits.

Pessimise roads because people cannot stick to basic rules? That's silly. Instead, take away their ability to drive if they can't do it responsibly.

If an ambulance has to go that way, you'd want that to be able to drive fast.

Also, people can drive poorly on any type of road.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#148

Post by worik » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:22 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #10

hammock wrote: post #6

Chesterfield County, Va. can be generally understood as one of the most, if not the most, pro-cop (densely populated) counties in the whole country. You don’t want to be arrested there Edit: not sure the reason for the downvotes, this fact is useful context and first-hand

Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving. The lesser of either 20 over the speed limit or any speed over ~80~ 85 miles an hour (thanks jmisavage) in Virginia is a misdemeanor, and at least one auto journalist has been jailed in Virginia. https://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my... It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors.

Golly.I read that article.

What a hideous person.

Who drives so fast on country roads? Very selfish people who do not care about their own lives let alone the lives of others.

What a good punishment! Much better than a fine. We should use short prison sentences much more for the sorts of crimes rich privileged reprobates like this do.

Then the winging! It seems gaol is not pleasant. Does the writer want sympathy? None from me!

I so wish the officer had impounded the car and left these two people on the side of the road. The officer did not. But still the winging!

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#149

Post by sneak » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:23 PM UTC

DevX101 wrote: post #134

I'm assuming the police is primarily using GPS to prove guilt, but are there any recorded cases of someone using GPS to "prove" their innocence, as an alibi?

In a lot of cases by the time you learn you are being accused, the data is no longer retained/available from the carriers.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#150

Post by sneak » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:25 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #77

This guy’s friend died of an overdose and that was enough justification to track him? That seems like way too low of a bar.

As someone who has read a fair number of granted search warrants, I can attest to the fact that 100% had obvious technical, logical, or factual errors (under penalty of perjury) that were granted by the judge anyway.

The bar/basis to successfully receive a search warrant is hilaribad. It's pretty close to a rubber stamp. The courts just believe whatever crap the cops spew out.