Beginning this Thursday, July 1st, Michigan police officers will have another law to enforce. The ban on text-messaging while driving will be going into effect and there are questions on how this law is going to be enforced. Police will be able to pull over citizens solely for using their cell phones to send or look at text messages.
While text-messaging and driving will be band and can result in a $100 fine the first time, dialing a cell phone is still very legal. The similarities of the two are what are causing all the questions. How are police officers going to tell the difference between dialing a number and sending a text message? There really is not a definite answer to that question.
Texting and driving will be a primary offense, which means the police can pull over drivers just for using cell phones. At this point it is up to the officer’s judgment as to whether the driver was texting or making a call. Either way this it will be hard to prove that a driver was texting, which will make this law hard to enforce.
Surely this isn’t going to be an easy law to enforce, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. Overall, texting and driving is a safety issue and with this law going into effect it could mean safer roads for drivers. Still, is there going to be a way to prove this and what will happen if tickets are handed out because of confusion?
What are your thought on the topics? Is this a good law to enforce and if so what is the best way for officers to enforce it? Please feel free to leave a comment, we appreciate everyone’s input.
3 responses to “Police Officers to Enforce No Texting While Driving Law”
Posted by Lynda
In my opinion, if an officer pulls someone for suspicion of texting while driving and the individual says he/she was on the phone, simply asks to see the phone. All phones will give you the time a call was made and a text was sent. If the individual refuses to give an officer the phone, he/she gets a ticket.
Posted on July 26, 2010 at 11:32 PM
Posted by Tanis Zamora
The remarks section is used all the time by my department and you are right frank wood it does help win cases. I heard some judges goes as far as to ask officers to write down when a citizen was disrespectful or cussing.
Posted on July 22, 2010 at 11:52 PM
Posted by frank wood
as a current road patrol officer with the wayne county sheriff’s department i can tell you that on the surface it’s a hard law to enforce, but you can watch a driver for a period of time then stop and cite which help the citing officers case.
if an officer want to cite for texing etc. under the new law 257.602b he or she can consider other laws such as careless driving,and if an officer can articulate the drivers eyes not being on the road and using a electronic device USE THE REMARKS SECTION on the citation to explain the violation in detail and thats whats wins the cases in court just like a stop sign citation, if you write what speed and turn was made while running a stop sign more likley you will when the case instead of leaving the remark section blank.
Posted on July 4, 2010 at 9:07 AM