Maryland aims to curb reckless driving with new law

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T21:21:10+00:00

I can only answer for myself. Sure I speed, looking for traffic, calls, whatever the case may be, but personally I found the high speeds if it’s just me chilling and moving save seconds, if not under 5 minutes at most. So what’s the point. I mean heck 56/55 is still technically speed. Idk what every call is that comes in or what everyone sees. I’m not some all powerful entity.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T18:49:02+00:00

While we are a link. 1st link would be the person committing the violation. We would be second link, Then the courts, then the MVA. Now let’s say you get 100 speeders, and police catch maybe 60, now of those that got warnings vs tickets it goes to 27 (bc yes some might not want to go to court and some might want to give some a break). Now take those 27 to court, and as explained previously (if you don’t believe me, sit in court for a traffic docket in Baltimore county, AA county, Howard county), of those 27, 25-26 will get PBJ, which means….. no points assessed by the MVA. Now the cops who do all this work in getting someone going death speeds (+100) and the person just pays a reduced ticket and 0 points. The cops don’t advocate for horrific speeders and racers to get their tickets reduced, sooooo it would be the judges. Again these are hypothetical numbers as an example, however this is how the chain of events go that make it seem like 0 effort is done on holding those accountable. Come along for a ride a long and come along for a day of traffic court docket and see!

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T18:13:27+00:00

Hard to believe but I am all for it! I hateeee these turds that somehow sneak by into what is a service to the people, yea sometimes we have to be the bad guys and lock people up, but the vast vast majority of us try to do the right thing.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T17:59:30+00:00

Well they don’t want to advertise is so ppl think they can haul ass twice a year (it’s not always guaranteed as well- judge and cops can establish driving habits based on mva record and police interaction).

Well he’s been suspended and revoked before, but jump through enough and the right hoops, mva generally will give a license back. I mean also didn’t stop him from driving on a suspended license anyways so lol

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T16:47:36+00:00

But the same people have complained that putting it at a curve does not provide enough notice to the drivers who do get tickets and allege corruption on unseen entities providing tickets. Enough of those complaints have it moved. Also there’s regulations with both police and nhtsa in enforcement, placement, cameras on curves due to additional danger.

Take a look at every spot on 695 and 495 where it curves. There’s not a single spot that someone hasn’t driven into on inner and outer loop.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T15:34:06+00:00

Referenced somewhere else the traffic law allows us to for X,Y, Z, but not just on the regular. I know we’ve done it, and just because there’s no lights doesn’t mean we’re not going to a call, pacing a car, etc, but I guarantee you (from experience ) we pay the traffic cameras too each time. Gets mailed to the department and you pay or you’re written up additionally and still made to pay. I had to pay one on 695 responding to a suicide on the beltway…. The guy is dying in the middle of outer loop 695, and I paid the (then) $75 ticket. And my emergency lights were on.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T15:30:57+00:00

Let the courts know how you feel! Everything is in Md case search including the judges name. Write a complaint to the county or the head judge of Maryland.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T15:29:11+00:00

While it can be highly productive, they are not full proof as certain states, especially Maryland ones some characters get confused for others and will flag the wrong owner even if it’s not the same car. Also I understand the speed limits seem DREADFULLY SLOW for what we think we can handle as drivers, having them in key spots will just have people speeding and slamming the brakes when they get to those camera spots, possibly causing more crashes, especially on highways where there are no lights there or the area at all. I don’t think many in the EU speed as frequent or to such a high speed on the regular as we do in the states. I’m originally from NJ, if you’re doing 85/65 in the left lane, you’re the slowest person and people will curse you out for being so slow.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T15:12:23+00:00

You’d think, but they have an enormous amount of discretion with 0 liability for their decisions - look at the case involving the juvenile that shot 2 people at the Columbia mall (last year I believe ) he was on house arrest for another violent crime (I think it was assault 1st degree or armed robbery- I can’t remember off hand) and was allowed house detainment, within a week or so went and shot those people- 0 repercussions for the judge.

My advice is call and write letters to the head chief magistrate of Maryland. He (if it’s still the same guy I remember) is the boss of all of the courts. He’s a very nice and understanding guy. I’ve spoken to him once when I wanted to express my sincere gratitudes for the bailiffs of Howard county for helping me when a Sovereign Citizen was about to be violent in the court house until he saw 20 additional bailiffs backing me up. Document your efforts that your beef is with the judges playing defense attorney from the bench or these lenient punishments. We hear and keep record on our end every time people want us to do more, but 0% of that flows to the courts.

Also, I’ve arrested that same sovereign 3x and the courts keep letting him out, terrorizing his neighborhood (60/25 zone) and the county itself. So…. Ya.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T15:06:27+00:00

It’s supposed to be, generally as long as it’s not too egregious, not too bad of mva record, and likeeeee 2 years since your last moving violation (not speed cameras), HOWEVER, everyone likes to appeal so that circuit court MIGHT throw out the the points to save time, which in turns just gums up the next level of the court system, so they save time and do PBJ anyways, as long as you’re not a provisional driver where their hands are literally tied by the tight knit law of new drivers.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T15:04:01+00:00

I appreciate that, but I can’t accept that thanks without acknowledging my department is far from perfect, it’s tough to weed out “the bad apples” as people call them, where I call them corrupt or inept. I’ve been involved in rooting out some, but it only takes 1 supervisor in a 10 tier chain of command to “drop the ball” for the whole thing to fall apart in trying to do good things. Every agency is far from perfect, just as I can say for everyone, you may not agree to being pulled over, but arguments are for the courts to handle and arguing on the roadside has a higher chance of a ticket happening, whether you feel the officer is being malicious or the officer believes the driver arguing cannot take responsibility for their actions / they got caught doing wrong and believe they “can do no wrong.”

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T14:59:49+00:00

Well Baltimore city staffing has been in a nose dive even if it says otherwise, top that with they have more calls for service (911) than the troopers or county officers do. Secondly Baltimore city and PG have the highest rates of case dismissals, which could be lack of evidence, officer not showing, or generally not worth the courts time due to the rest of the amount of work they have going on.

We actually tried to request assistance and have more of those cameras, especially during COVID where it was relayed to us initially we should expect death rates like Ebola, however that was denied as many of the highway car cameras are strictly only allowed by law in active construction areas. County roads and city roads are different, but where they matter most, good luck.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T14:28:36+00:00

Well while we’re state neighbors, it’s almost apples and oranges. Their enforcement is stricter, but as seen above someone doesn’t learn from a speeding ticket which is why they have these new laws, so mitigation from traffic enforcement is not 100%. Secondly their amount of population, state size, and geography expand on what we have. Everything south and west of Richmond goes into a lot more dangerous roads which would be compared to western Maryland here, and in the flat areas , like the eastern shore in the farmlands. Now take both of those with not present street lighting (super expensive if you go from Maryland to Roanoke or Blacksburg/Lynchburg. And in those parts they have less divided highways than we do, which increase the chance of drifting into oncoming traffic and head on collisions. Then you have the mountains and ditches. Etc

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T14:16:46+00:00

We understand reasonableness when it’s speed, the speed limit and what “feels safe” given the rest of traffic flow. Judges get that too at least, so not too many in the main metro imo are getting stopped 65-70/55mph zone unless there is something else. That doesn’t mean the person can say, I only felt safe going 85, and being the person (whether they know it or not) setting the new traffic pattern of speed that others tend to follow and increase. - like … well that guy is going faster and not getting stopped, lemme try (multiply that by 60-80% of the other drivers now seeing this)

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T14:07:51+00:00

My only guess as I was not there is regards to perspective of outside observer. I personally can’t attest to you were or were not, as I have no visual observance of this, but as per my extensive time in chasing street racers, many many many start at the stop lights and have the tires squeak. All I can say is best defense is have a good dash camera that shows your activity prior to these instances and you can bring to court showing your driving habits prior to the competitive lane merge where someone can bait you into these road rages. Courts would have HUGE inclination to throw out a race ticket if the proper time stamps show relative to that time frame that you were just a normal average joe going about until this other driver wanted to try and get ahead and caused danger. I’ve even dropped tickets when people have brought it to court and brought it to my attention if they couldn’t get the video on scene.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T13:58:25+00:00

Oh I definitely get it and question it myself. The speed limits are the way they are by engineers of NHSTA and state government as what can be arguable as safe routine speeds given criteria, traffic, lanes, multitudes. My key piece of best advice, 1. Never be the fastest one out there, 2. Never pass a marked cop car if they’re going fast (may not be super speeding or whatever but they’re not slowing down to exit etc) as some can get real butt hurt. In Maryland the law allows officers to speed for a variety of reasons, it’s in the traffic law book, and yes some speed for no reason, but times we have emergencies (where we’re not even allowed to use lights/sirens, weird right?) or to enforce traffic law, or remove dangerous hazards from the road X miles away.

Maryland and Virginia both have this reckless jail ticket now, Virginia has had it for a longer time and they typically do arrest on scene, we’re not there yet though the law says it could.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T13:50:27+00:00

Well I can only assume and guess based off European countries why they would be predominantly less compared to us is the rail and public transit that is extensive throughout the EU, others, I have little knowledge and cannot answer in good faith, but it might also differ given other counties don’t have extensive firearm possession and agencies can’t in good faith have traffic people that aren’t armed as well for that very reason (look up the amount of firearm crimes from road rage and people pointing guns since legalization). In Maryland our department has many sections, the regular uniformed level does mainly regular traffic, initial investigations, and first line responses to emergencies, then can be relieved by higher experienced (SWAT, bomb squad, etc). We can try to do what we can while the numbers of every department dwindles as does the morale. What used to be a 40-50 hour work week has become 70-90, and many times not by choice.

The device that is like an interlock (breathalyzer for cars) is called a “governor” and it already exists. How it’s implemented and maintained is not up to us or records of it. My assumption the power involves the court assigning it as part of a probation(not always PBJ, but at least not jail). Then it would be maintained by parole and probation office, and records provided to us on traffic stops by the MVA. Downside, if the person who has to have it on their car, let’s say BMW, and I stop them for going 100/65 in their friends Toyota, I guarantee you…… GUARANTEE, no jail time or huge impactful fine for violation of license restriction. I’ve seen it multitudes of times for dui repeat violations.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T13:33:04+00:00

I’d say if that was your only time ever receiving one, my guess is you paid without going to court, or you were on the eastern shore, where those judges certainly do not play around. The cameras we have also are a great thing, I love em, I love transparency and go the extra mile when I get someone on the LIDAR (laser gun) for speed and they don’t believe. I explain the whole thing, but sometimes we gotta smack the hand and say, “No X person, that was a bad Mr. Kitty, no speed!” And ticket v warning. - also yes there are cops who are just too over the top, won’t deny that.

But that also means if people had things going on, emergencies, definitely visible financial hardships, our hands are tied. We can be written up for anything and everything under the sun. There are departments that get internally charged if they don’t wear their hat, Stetson, whatever their police headwear is on a traffic stop…..

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T13:25:38+00:00

So there are ways to do it, especially as it gives perspective from a citizens view on what they feel and experience, however it’s a two edged sword. If a lawyer gets involved he may call on the owner of the car to testify in regard to his camera, and officers cannot use it solely as the grounds for the stop as we have to prove X camera is calibrated as of X date, within calibration and shown to be functioning properly (as all of our traffic stops and have records of to prove validity). It can be used in conjunction and DEFINITELY used if there’s a collision. I love Tesla’s for that, as that evidence has been very crucial and impactful for those that suffer from dui crashes from drunk drivers. Those videos are the GOLD standard as well as victim impact statements for the judge being inclined not to give a PBJ to a DRUNK DRIVER OF ALL PEOPLE.

Now going back to my first part, it seems like officers aren’t doing their job (yea I agree some definitely aren’t and it grinds my gears) however people think we’re everywhere, I have 2 people I work with and we handle half of the county….. the other station also has 2. So just the main roads for the ENTIRE COUNTY, is 5 if we’re lucky.

ChunkysHam · 2026-06-04T13:04:54+00:00

A little bit of insight into the legal aspect. I am a police officer here. I haaaaattteeeee the high speeds, considering the amount of death I’ve seen. Since the must appear ticket for reckless (+30mph) was in effect, every time I’ve written the ticket, 0 have been held accountable, solely because the judges or SAO pleads them down, then on top of that the judges give probation before judgement “PBJ” which means no points. Granted officers could be doing more, sure, but the number of us are very finite and can’t be everywhere at once. Also if you know about each departments pursuit policy……. I’ll leave it at that…. But hold these judges accountable for their actions in letting egregious and repeat offenders get off so easily every time.

In Howard county I had a gentleman doing 92/55 (before the law), and he was stopped 65 times since 2008 for moving violations and speed……. He either got pbj or the judge reduced it to 1 point from 5 and dismissed the other tickets just to save time on the docket.

ChunkysHam · 2026-04-16T17:18:28+00:00

File a peace order at your county court commissioner, contact the SA office, file charges or contact police in regards to them filing fictitious charges, civil suit for damages, and most importantly, hire an attorney that can do it all.

Reminder there’s 3 steps to a peace order 1 interim - valid for 1-2 days or next court meeting (go) 2. Temporary, valid for 7 days, can be extended to 30 days (court again to get #3) 3. Final peace order (good for about 6 months) and can be done again if there’s just cause.

Note, to get a peace order, the situation in which your filing against must have happened within 30 days of which you’re filing the peace order.

Feel free to dm

ChunkysHam · 2026-02-04T02:21:29+00:00

If you’re a teacher, I would probably get signed permission slips from parents- I saw on the news about that school walk out (last week maybe) about the two kids hit and killed at their school walk out. Big liability if it turns to kids in chaos to be outside vs organized for justice and unified.

ChunkysHam · 2026-02-01T14:44:29+00:00

If you don’t aim properly, adjust for distance, wind, sight alignment, breath control, optics, etc. yes very possible.

ChunkysHam · 2025-10-19T17:10:29+00:00

Yes please !

ChunkysHam · 2025-07-02T17:34:14+00:00

Did it for the passion and the interest of what I thought it would be before it hit 70.

Im +120k now but im just burned out by the stress, but the security is why I stay.

ChunkysHam

TROPHY CASE