Alexandria voids more than 2,000 speeding tickets after faulty speedometer testing

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Alexandria officials have taken the step to void thousands of speeding tickets after an audit discovered speedometers on some police cruisers had not been properly calibrated. 

The city manager said there was inconsistent testing of five vehicles and some were not tested frequently enough. 

The tickets were thrown out because officials could not be certain that the speeds clocked by the officers in those cruisers were accurate within a certain limit. 

“Although the state law doesn't prescribe how many miles per hour the variance should be”, said city manager Mark Jinks, “we felt it should have been two--we found some that were more than that and those are tickets that are also on this list that we had the court vacate".

Two to three city employees and a city auditor spent the last six months going through the records. 

“The vehicles were not maintained by the police department another department maintained those vehicles and appropriate disciplinary action was taken", said Jinks. 

Letters were sent Wednesday to the drivers whose tickets were voided. 

Jinks says if you get one of the letters go to this website for instructions on what to do. 

The court has agreed to erase points and other notations on driver's records who have had their tickets voided.

The cost to the city of all ticket costs are refunded will be more than $300,000.

The city manager says the police department was not at fault. The testing was done by another city agency separate from the police and the officers had no reason to disbelieve the speeds they were recording when they pulled someone over.