Willoughby Hills Police Department says it is remaining upfront and committed to making necessary corrections to maintain the integrity of its programs in light of a recent camera ticket that was brought to its attention. According to Willoughby Hills Police Chief Matthew Naegele, the violator initi ally received a citation in the mail with a seven-day window for payment. However, this was an administrative error on the part of the department’s processing service, which was identified and corrected within a couple of days. “To ensure transparency and fairness, I worked closely with our city prosecutor and instructed the processing center to halt the status of these isolated cases, and reissue the citations, now allowing for the proper 30-day payment period in line with our ordinances,” Naegele said. This adjustment provides the violators sufficient time to explore their payment options or decide whether to file an appeal, Naegele said. “To be clear, the only change was to extend the violators’ due process rights,” he said. “Once the corrected citations are received in the mail, the violators will be able to either pay the fine or pursue an appeal through the proper legal channels. No other alterations were made to the citations.” Naegele said that while errors do happen from time to time, these administrative fixes do not alter the fact that excessive speeding remains a significant issue on the city’s roadways and presents significant risk, and hazard to the motoring public. “I understand that it may have caused some confusion,” he said. “I want to emphasize that I do not view it as a controversial issue. The driver in question was indeed traveling at 78 miles per hour in a 60 miles per hour zone, which is well above the posted speed limit of 60.” The citation was issued in accordance with the law, utilizing certified and calibrated equipment, and by a trained and experienced law enforcement officer, Naegele said. Even in traditional traffic enforcement, administrative errors, such as incorrect court dates, do occasionally occur, he said. “In such cases, the department would similarly void the original citation and reissue a corrected one,” he said. “Courts typically do not consider these fixes as invalidating the citation. They often appreciate the correction.” ...read more read less