Do police officers have to show up to court automaticlly if you give someone a ticket or is it only if they?

El Scott

I show up for court under two conditions.
1). I am subpoenaed to court or,
2). It is my court date (one day a month).

Those are the only times I go to court. I must go to court on those days. If I fail to report to court I can (and probably will be) written up. Besides I get paid overtime to go to court.

Kenneth C

Sort of. We have set court dates here. For example, mine is always the second thursday of the month along with a few month officers. Every citation I issue and every municipal crime that I arrest someone for, court will be on the second Thursday of the month. So I will always be in court when needed. If someone requests a continuence, it will generally just go to the next second Thursday and I will be there again.

It's a good system in my opinion. Saves the city on overtime (since I am already scheduled to be there), I know when court is so there is little chance I will miss it and I get to clear everything out once a month.

zmortis

I've had traffic citations dropped in Maryland when I fought the charge and the officer failed to show up for the court date set by the clerk of the court. If you are pleading guilty on the ticket, you just pay the fine they tell you, and no court appearance is required for you or the officer.

If you are pleading innocent on the ticket, plan to pay for a lawyer to represent you. If you know you were doing what you were charged with, then take some personal responsibility for your actions and pay the fine.

Case in point, I literally did get a speeding ticket this morning, I was speeding (65 in a 55 zone), I'm going to pay the fine and take the points. If I wasn't willing to pay the fine, I should have been more careful about my speed. I've fought two tickets in my life, one I hadn't failed to completely stop at a stop sign like the officer claimed, the other an officer identified my vehicle incorrectly as the one he had seen speeding on another stretch of road.

I hope this helps.

Andoman

If you get a speeding ticket and chose to fight it in court, the issuing officer has to attend the court date or the ticket will be tossed.

California Street Cop

With most traffic citations, nobody needs to go to court unless you're fighting it.

RobNJ

When an officer issues a summons, in most cases, there is a place to write a court date on the bottom. This is the court date when the officer is scheduled to be in court, so basically if anyone wants to contest a ticket or with tickets issued with a "appearance required", he can be there in one shot and not have to go to court every day.

In other instances, police go to court when you contest a ticket (plead not guilty) and request a trial. Then the officer needs to appear as the complaining witness at the trial.

Cops do not NEED to show up to court typically unless you are pleading not guilty and you want a trial. Otherwise, there is not a point - expect when the prosecutor/your attorney wants to make a deal and talk to the cop.

Silly World rmx

Thankfully they don't show up all the time
I've been lucky so far, last 2 times

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