“Do Officers Know About Dismissed Tickets?”

Recently I got a speeding ticket. It was my first ever speeding ticket. I went to court and manged to get ticket dismissed (charges were dropped).

My question is as follows. If I happen to be stopped by an officer in the future again, would the officer be able to see that I had been charged in the past but the charges were dropped? In other words does police (or some other body) keep track of such dismissed tickets and do the police officers know that the driver they stopped had been cited in the past (perhaps more than once) but got the past ticket(s) dismissed?

Thank you.

Typically, at the side of the road, police will simply check your licence history which shows your convictions and suspensions only. If they want to dig a little more, most (if not all) police services in Ontario now keep computerized records of any traffic stops and/or charges. These police records aren't necessarily updated to show the outcome of the charge in Court, but by checking your conviction history the officer can usually put two and two together.

The Courts also have a database that records the outcome of any charges laid by the police.

Thank you!

@Stanton,

Just want to make sure I got this right...

Are you saying that even though the person was not charged for an offence (went to court and charge was dismissed) there is a history on his/her driving record that shows as such?

I understand there is a court record, but that is not what the officer has access to on the side of the road.

Observer135 wrote:Are you saying that even though the person was not charged for an offence (went to court and charge was dismissed) there is a history on his/her driving record that shows as such?

I understand there is a court record, but that is not what the officer has access to on the side of the road.

A basic MTO query of a driver's licence will only show registered convictions and suspensions. Individual police agencies however typically maintain records of ALL charges laid. An officer may or may not be able to access some or all of those records at the roadside.