A man in Colorado recently received a traffic ticket for blowing through a Stop sign — not because a police officer witnessed the violation in person, but because the driver posted video of the incident on Facebook.
CBS Denver reports that the driver made the video to demonstrate how he avoids traffic in his area by cutting through the parking lot of an apartment complex.
(We’re not sure why exactly you’d want to share that information with the world, as it could only result in more people using that shortcut, thereby increasing the traffic on your previously secret route, but oh well.)
Among the people who viewed the video were the local police, who noticed that at one point in the clip the driver seems to roll right through a Stop sign. So they tracked him down and delivered a traffic ticket to his home a few days later.
The driver/shortcut spoiler, who says he will fight the citation, appears to believe the police went too far in using the video to issue that ticket.
“Is this where we’re at?” he asks CBS Denver. “Can they use videos from Facebook to give me a traffic violation? Can they do that to everybody?”
According to a local police sergeant, yes.
“You have a First Amendment right to post whatever you want,” acknowledges the officer, “but if you’re breaking the law and it’s in our jurisdiction then we can do something about it.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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