According to an Associated Press story quoting the local Newark Advocate newspaper, the chief told the village council members at a meeting in October that the departments license with the FCC expired in 2013, which means the radar guns used to measure the speed of motorists whizzing by cannot be calibrated for use. No one applied to renew the license so the tickets issued in the past five years simply arent valid, she said. She told the council that the law requires the department to have that license in order to operate both its radar units and its radios. That means the department cant write valid tickets, at least for now.
Based on past experience in other states, specifically MA and NJ, all those traffic tickets issued without current licenses were invalidated and the sentences (including fines, if any) were rescinded and records purged. In CT a long time ago, the cops couldn't produce calibration records in a couple instances and the speeding tickets were thrown out.
I know of a case where a County Sheriff was forced to give back two years of Speeding Fines because of a similar issue... Back in the day ALL Part 90 Licensees ( State & local .Gov Radio Licensees) were REQUIRED to preform Certfication Work on each transmitter covered under the License, Once a year and record the results in the Licensees Station Log... This particular Sheriff had decided to spend the money on other assetts, and forgo the Cert Work, three years in a row... The FCC Field Agent for that area happened to pull a snap inspection of that rural County, and caught the issue, then wrote up a Official Violation Notice, and put FCC Seals on ALL the OFF/ON Switches on every Transmitter covered under the License, and told the Sheriff if he violated. the FCC Seals, before the Cert. work was done on ALL the transmitters, he would return with a US Marshal, and lock him up in his own Jail... This was a College Town, and the news got out to the Student population, who were the primary recipients of most of the speeding tickets, and they got together, and sued the Sheriff for improper Law Enforcement, and won.., The judgement almost Bankrupted the County...
