Client Review on City of Lakewood, Colorado

Feedback:

I chose to dispute a traffic ticket I was given by an aggressive and hostile police officer in Lakewood. He pulled me over for turning on a yellow arrow and yelled at me that it was red. He yelled at me from the beginning and never once used his lights or siren to pull me over. I imagine this is a clever way for them to get angry at you before they even pull you over. Some psychological way for them to get angry so they can treat you badly or intimidate you. When I went to court to fight this I had to wait for his availability. He then comes in with a prosecutor and the whole 'proceeding' begins. He lied under oath saying he 'activated his emergency lights' to pull me over but there were never lights used as he drove behind me and no siren either. The only way I knew I should pull over was he pulled up beside me and yelled out his window for me to "pull over now!!" He was already angry and hostile. The judge ruled in his favor of course even though the only evidence was a picture of the intersection that wasn't even from the same day and upon which he drew according to him where his truck was and where I was at the time I supposedly turned on a red arrow. The judge ruled that because I had to pay attention to traffic in front of me AND the light, I must be guilty (having had to pay attention to far too much altogether). The whole court proceeding was a charade and I knew as soon as he walked in 35 mins late with a prosecutor. My word against his and as another reviewer stated so aptly, they are not here to serve and protect but to cite and collect.. Lakewood must be making a killing and sadly the system here is just as broken as any other city. It is really a shame when you can't trust those we are supposed to be protected by..