A former Harley-Davidson rider in Canada, Ian Tootill, is a appealing a ticket he got from a Vancouver traffic cop for a noise violation on his motorcycle.
Toothill says he was arbitrarily singled out by an officer equipped with a personal noise device which Canadian Attorney General Shirley Bond says is not permitted for use by officers. Toothill is also saying that the officer who wrote the ticket is a motorcycle cop who “specializes” in writing excessive noise tickets. The case is under appeal in the British Columbia Supreme Court and says Vancouver Constable John Bercic essentially overstepped his authority. The $109 ticket was written, at least according to Toothill, after Bercic used his own personal noise meter, not police department equipment, to test the motorcycle.
“I was railroaded,” said Tootill.
Authorities disagree and say the ticket was correctly issued and upheld in Traffic Court in 2010.
During the appeal, it was revealed that Bercic wrote some 100 noise tickets in 2008, and that was by a good margin the most handed out by any Vancouver Police Department officer. The state says Bercic handed out the most tickets because he had “training and expertise, probably the most in the department,” and added that the officer has ridden a Harley on the job for 20 years.
