Snitch Tickets

snitch tickets stop sign
Don't tattle on a friend or a family member for driving your 

Red light camera tickets cost about $500 per ticket in California and a point on your license. Since the tickets add a point to your license, the police must obtain the name of the actual driver before they can file the ticket at court. Since the photo of the license plate will only lead to the registered owner ("RO"), and often he/she often was not the person driving the car. The police will go to great lengths to get registered owners to identify who was driving the car that was ticketed. Technicians reviewing the photos will check to see if the pictured driver is obviously not the registered owner (male / female mismatch, age difference, or a rental car). Sometimes the photo is too blurry to identify who it is and will send the registered owner an official-looking notice telling him that he must identify the driver. About 40 California police departments will mail out Snitch Tickets to fool the registered owner into identifying the actual driver of the car.


Snitch Tickets have not been filed with the court, so are recognizable because they don't say "Notice to Appear," don't have the court's address, and say (on the back, in small letters), "Do not contact the court." Since they have NOT been filed with the court, they have no legal weight. You can ignore a Snitch Ticket. Snitch Tickets are designed to look like a real ticket but are legally very different. Real tickets and Snitch Tickets both ask the registered owner to turn in or identify the person who was driving the car. Despite all that, there are some differences that you can rely on. One of the best ways to identify a Snitch Ticket is the small print on the back of the page, "Do not contact the court about this notice." Snitch Tickets will also lack any wording directing you to contact or "Respond to" the court. In fact, on a typical Snitch Ticket, there is no phone number for the court, and the court's address usually is missing or incomplete. (Please note, however, that in some towns the real tickets carry an incomplete address.

A real ticket will ask you to contact ("Respond to") the court and you should. If your ticket says this it's likely a real one and you should look it up on the court's website. If it's not on their site, it still could be real. Make sure you are looking on the court's website, not the website of the camera operator Redflex (PhotoNotice) or ATS's. Your ticket is real if you have received a Courtesy Notice and it asks you to contact the court. Please note that your ticket could be real even if the court's phone number is missing and its address is incomplete. This is often the case because some cities are leaving this information off their real tickets, to make it harder for defendants to fight their tickets in court.

Topics

A93820014BS Abu Dhabi accidents ACLU ACS Advertising Aha Mobile AI Airsage ALPR ALPR Cameras Android Apple Arizona Atlanta ATS Attorney Australia Auto Insurance Baltimore Belgium Beltronics Bikes Bribe Brooklyn Buy Buying California Camera Vans Canada carplay Carpool Cars CDOT cell phone Chicago City Council Class Action Cobra Colorado Connected Signals Connecticut construction contracts Corruption courtesty notice courtesy notice Crashes crime Crosswalk crowdsourcing Culver City Dangerous Intersections Dash Cam Data Database Des Moines Distracted Drivers DIY DOT download Drivers License Driving Instructor Drowsy Drunk Drivers Dubai DUI E-ZPass England Escort Europe Facial Recognition failure to stop Fake Cameras FasTrak Fighting Tickets Finance Fines Fleets Florida FOIA Ford France freedom of information act request Garmin Gatso Georgia Germany Glendale Google Google Maps Government GPS Angel GPS Navigation Guest Writer Hawaii Here Highway Robbery Highways HOV Cameras How To humor Illinois Injury Inrix Insignia Instagram Insurance Insurenet iOS IOT Iowa iphone iRadar Italy Iteris Joe Biden Laser Craft Law Suit Laws lawyer Left Turns legal Legislation License Plate Local London Long Beach Los Angeles Loud Exhaust Louisiana LPR Cameras Lyft Machine Learning Magellan Maine Maintenance Manhattan maps Marketing Maryland Massachusetts Microsoft Minnesota Missouri Mitac Mobile Ads Mobile Apps mobile speed zone MTA Navigation Navigon Navteq Nestor Netherlands New Jersey New Mexico New Orleans New York New Zealand News NHTSA Nokia NTSB Oahu Oakland Ohio Parking Parking Tickets Parks Peasy Pennsylvania Phantom Alert Philadelphia Phoenix Photo Notice photographs POI Points Poland police Politics Poll Portugal Privacy Progressive Web App Protest Radar Railroad Reckless Driving red light cameras RedFlex RedSpeed redzone refunds Removing rental car tickets Repairs research revenue Rhode Island Ridesharing Right Turns rolling right turns Russia Sacramento Safe Speed Safety Safety Cameras San Diego San Francisco San Jose Scam Schools Seat Belt Seattle secutity settlement Shutting Down signs Snitch Tickets solar Sound Cameras Spain speed cameras Speed Vans State Ban stop sign cameras Street View Students subpoena Subscription Supreme Court Surveillance Switzerland Taxi Technology TeleAtlas Telematics Tennessee Tesla Texas Texting Tickets Tips Toll Road TomTom Tracking Traffic traffic attorney Traffic Camera Traffic Lights Traffic Safety Traffic School traffic tickets Traffic.com Trapster Trial by Written Declaration Trinity Trucking trucks UAE Uber UK Unpaid Ticket Vehicle Occupancy Verra Mobility video Vigilant Violation Fines Violation Info Violation Speed Virginia Vision Zero Voters warning devices warning notice Washington Washington DC Waze Wikango Xerox Yellow Lights YouTube