Can someone do this?

[alan087]

I haven't recieved a ticket this way or anything, I was just curious...

I was wondering if a regular person saw you do something like speed or make an illegal lane change, could they take down your plate number and give it to the police and you get a ticket? Does an officer have to see the violation in person for you to get a ticket? If you can get a ticket this way, would the person reporting you to the police have to go to court?

 

[NYClex]

Every citizen has the right to file a complaint about any infraction of the laws with the police. If the police then finds that it is credible they can file charges or issue tickets. But, if the defendant contests the charges or the tickets, they have to prove that an infraction was committed. The only way to prove it would be to get this citizen who filed the complaint into court to testify. In addition to that hassle, a citizen would have a major difficulty to explain how he knew you were driving 70 instead of 55. He most probably did not have a radar gun... So the police usually would not act upon such a report.

The situation is different if it is about reckless driving, endangering, stuff like that. If you make an illegal lane change that causes the church minibus behind you to make an emergency stop, slip off the roadway, get damaged... they easily could charge you and they might very well want to bring the minister and his flock into court as witnesses...

So you see, the answer as usual is: it depends...