Police chief: GPS ruling significant

The chief of the Petaluma Police Department feels a recent court ruling that upheld a speeding ticket will help to substantiate the validity of radar in law-enforcement efforts.

“The ruling shows that radar actually is very accurate and reliable, and that global positioning systems aren’t quite as accurate,” said Dan Fish.

In a decision that was closely watched due to its possible nationwide implications, Sonoma County Court Commissioner Carla Bonilla ruled that a Petaluma motorcycle officer acted properly by issuing a speeding ticket to Shaun Malone, now 19, of Windsor on July 4, 2007 when police radar detected that he was driving a 2000 Toyota Celica at 62 mph in a 45-mph zone on Lakeville Highway.

A Sonoma County Superior Court judge ruled in November 2007 that he was speeding, and ordered him to pay $190, but his mother, Karen Kahn, and stepfather, Roger Rude, a retired lieutenant from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, filed an appeal. They claimed that a global positioning device installed in the car showed that Malone was traveling at 45 mph at the time of the alleged violation.

In her recent ruling, Bonilla said that the distance between the stoplight at Freitas Road — where the GPS device showed that Malone had stopped — and a spot where he was tracked at driving 45 mph, 30 seconds later, is 1,980 feet, and that this confirms that he was speeding between the two points.

Sgt. Ken Savano also discussed the significance of the ruling.

“Unsafe speed is the No. 1 cause of traffic collisions statewide. When the defendant in this case challenged the accuracy of police radar with the defendant’s in-car GPS unit, the Petaluma Police Department realized the defendant’s inaccurate allegations could result in a case-law decision that could jeopardize law enforcement’s use of radar for speed enforcement,” he said.

The defense argued that the police radar readings could have been affected by mistakenly tracking the wrong vehicle, reflections from street signs or other issues.

The Petaluma Police Depart-ment spent more than $15,000 to battle on court expenses, most of it to Stephen Heppe, an expert witness who is president of avionics for Isitsu Group in Bingen, Wash.

“By requiring us to spend money on the appeal, the defense probably thought we would give up, due to the increasing expenses. But that’s not what we did in this case, or what we do in criminal cases,” Fish said.

The Petaluma Police Department sought to be reimbursed for $5,000 it spent for Heppe to testify at a hearing that was postponed when Andre Martinez, the attorney hired by Malone’s family, asked for a continuance. Bonilla denied the request.

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)