Half a Loaf...

We guess if the citizens are willing to part with their money rather than fight City Hall, that isn't really our lookout.

First, Mark Brown writes about the LIDAR controversy - something our readers have been complaining about for months now and something we covered earlier this past summer:

• It was with some fanfare that the Chicago Police Department announced three years ago that all city police districts were being supplied with high-tech LIDAR speed detectors to help crack down on speeders on neighborhood streets.

  What nobody has bothered to make public, however, is that for at least the past year, speeding tickets produced by Chicago police officers using LIDAR have been routinely dismissed in Cook County Traffic Court for any defendant bothering to show up to contest the case.

But someone has been told half a loaf is better than none evidently:

• Chicago Police will stick to their radar guns — by churning out speeding tickets generated by LIDAR detectors purchased to slow down neighborhood speeding — despite widespread dismissals in Traffic Court, Superintendent Jody Weis said Friday.

  “It’s a proven technology that law enforcement agencies throughout the United States use. …It’s the best thing on the market right now… and we’re gonna continue to use it,” Weis said.

Why not just have a Frye Hearing and nudge the conviction rate toward 100%? Shortshanks has never been shy about paying lawyers before - why now? Is he that afraid they'd lose it on a motion?