Reporting a speeding vehicle

[B-Rad]

One of my pet peeves is speeders and dangerous drivers. Being ex-MP, this is something we unfortunately dealt with a lot. But until coming to the Northern VA, I'd never seen such consistent & blatant disregard for traffic laws. Nobody signals lane changes, you'd be lucky to get a driver to signal at all, and the speeding is outrageous!

The other day I had a vehicle (whose make, model and registration shall not be named) tailgating me for almost 15 minutes, inches from my rear bumper. Eventually he got the hint that I wasn't going to speed up and he overtook me with such ferocity, tearing up the road way above the legal speed limit. At the lights, I had caught up to him only to witness him darting in between other vehicles very dangerously, and again zipping off into the distance at what could only have been speeds in excess of 90mph.

Needless to say, I reported the car (make, plates etc) to my local dept via the non-emergency number. It feels a bit sucky not to be able to pull people over any more, and I must admit it is something I tend to miss

However, out of curiosity- what normally happens if a full vehicle description/speeding report is given over to the Police in the U.S via a civilian call-in, such as what I did. Are violaters issued written warnings in the post? Or was my call fairly useless? I'm more familiar with the procedures in the U.K, so if somebody could enlighten me that'd be much appreciated!

[greg72982]

In PA we can file traffic citations on info received. It would of course require the complainant to come to court as we are just the middlemen.

I've only done it one time for driving too closely. The driver was found guilty. Majority of the time though people just call and don't want involved any further.

[GoDirectly2Jail]

In Va. an officer must personally observe the traffic infraction. If an officer is in the area, they may have been dispatched, however, if it was on an interstate you may have had a better response contacting the state police number.

[mcsap]

The other half of this is ....can you properly identify the driver ? And are you willing to go to court and miss a half or a full day of work ?

I can file a cite based on the CREDIBLE information from another person.

[cntryboy0531]

In Va. an officer must personally observe the traffic infraction. If an officer is in the area, they may have been dispatched, however, if it was on an interstate you may have had a better response contacting the state police number.

Same in Florida. I have to witness the violation in order to pull someone over and cite them for it. When we get call ins for that stuff (and we do, frequently), all I can do is respond to the area where the call came from (or where I think they are now), and see if I can find the vehicle.

[B-Rad]

Thanks for the replies, good to know. I suspected this would be the case.