Quick answer: Pacing is when a Maryland officer follows your car at a steady distance and reads their own speedometer to estimate your speed. It only holds up if the patrol car’s speedometer was calibrated, the officer held a constant gap for a long enough distance, and had a clear, straight line of sight behind you. Take away any one of those and the number becomes an estimate a good defense can pull apart.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland speeding cases, including plenty built on a pace rather than a radar or lidar reading. Pacing is the most human of the speed-measurement methods, and that is exactly why it is often the most beatable. Here is how it works, what the officer has to get right, and where these cases fall apart.
What Is Pacing and How Does an Officer Do It?
Pacing is a speed-measurement technique where the officer drives behind your vehicle and matches your speed until the gap between the two cars stops changing. When that gap is no longer opening or closing, the officer’s speed and your speed are the same, and the number on the patrol car’s speedometer becomes the alleged speed on your ticket. There is no radar gun and no laser involved. The “device” is the police cruiser’s own speedometer, and the measurement is the officer’s judgment that the distance stayed constant.
Because the officer has to lock onto your car, settle the following distance, and hold it long enough to be sure, a proper pace is not instantaneous. Officers are generally trained to follow the target vehicle for a meaningful stretch, commonly at least two-tenths of a mile, before they can honestly say the gap held steady. A quick glance in the mirror and a snap judgment is not a pace. This is a different animal from a radar or lidar speeding ticket, where a certified device returns a reading in a fraction of a second.
What Makes a Pace Reliable?
Three things have to be true before a pace is worth anything in court. Get all three right and the reading is credible. Miss any one and the number is guesswork.
- A calibrated speedometer. The whole method depends on the patrol car’s speedometer telling the truth. Speedometers drift, especially after tire changes or repairs, and an uncalibrated one can read several miles per hour off. The State should be able to produce a calibration record for that cruiser; if it can’t, the foundation for the number is missing.
- Adequate and steady distance over enough time. The officer has to hold a constant gap long enough to be certain the distance is genuinely not changing. A pace that lasts a few seconds, or one where the officer was still closing the gap, does not prove a steady speed.
- A clear, straight line of sight directly behind you. Judging distance is only reliable when the officer is squarely behind the target vehicle on a straight, unobstructed stretch of road. Curves, hills, turns, heavy traffic, and being off to one side all wreck the distance estimate.
Maryland’s speed limits are absolute under Md. Code, Transp. § 21-801.1, so the officer only has to prove you were over the posted number, not by how much you exceeded it as a matter of degree. That makes accuracy of the pace the whole ballgame. If the measurement is shaky, the case is shaky.
How Do You Challenge a Pacing Ticket?
A pace can be attacked at each of its weak points. The goal is to show that the conditions for a reliable reading were not met, which turns the officer’s number back into an estimate. These are the openings I look for first:
| Weak point in the pace | Why it undermines the reading |
|---|---|
| Distance not actually maintained | If the gap was still opening or closing, the officer never confirmed matching speeds. |
| Pace too short | A few seconds over a short stretch is not enough to prove a steady speed. |
| Uncalibrated speedometer | No calibration record means the source of the number is unverified. |
| Reading taken while accelerating | Officers who lock in a number while catching up report a speed higher than the car was actually going. |
| Officer alongside, not behind | Distance is far harder to judge from the side than from directly behind. |
| Curves, hills, turns, traffic | Anything that breaks a straight, clear line of sight corrupts the distance estimate. |
The single most common flaw is the acceleration error. An officer who spots you well ahead and floors it to close the distance is tempted to glance at the speedometer while still catching up. At that moment the cruiser is going faster than you are, so the reading overstates your speed. A proper pace requires the officer to first match your speed, then confirm the gap is frozen, and only then read the number.
Position matters too. When the patrol car is next to you rather than squarely behind, it is much harder to tell whether the distance is holding, and the speed estimate suffers. Nighttime pacing adds its own problem: drivers naturally speed up when headlights close in behind them, so the pace itself can induce the very speeding the officer claims to have observed. That is a fairness point worth raising in the right case.
None of this is a magic bullet. Pacing is still officer testimony, and a well-executed pace on a long, straight, open road with a calibrated speedometer is hard to beat. But it is subjective in a way a certified radar unit is not, which is why cross-examination about distance, duration, calibration, and road conditions so often creates the doubt that leads to a reduction, a dismissal, or a favorable disposition. For a candid picture of the odds across all methods, see why it’s so hard to beat a Maryland speeding ticket.
What Are the Penalties, and Should You Just Pay?
Most speeding tickets in the lower ranges are payable, meaning you can prepay the fine by mail, and the points scale with how far over you were, so a bigger alleged speed means more points on your record. The exact fine and point figures depend on the range you were charged with; you can see them broken out on the speeding ticket penalties by speed range page, and how those points stack up over time on the Maryland point system page. Faster charges cross over into must-appear territory, where prepayment isn’t an option.
Don’t just pay a pacing ticket. Paying the fine is a guilty plea and puts a conviction with points on your record. A pace is the most subjective way an officer can measure speed, so it’s often the worst kind of ticket to concede. Requesting a trial or a waiver hearing keeps a non-conviction outcome open, including probation before judgment under Crim. Proc. § 6-220, which carries no points. A hearing isn’t free (a judge can raise the fine up to a $500 maximum), but it costs nothing to preserve the option, and paying forecloses your best shot at fighting the measurement.
The good news for most drivers is that you usually don’t have to go it alone or even come to court. In many Maryland traffic cases your lawyer can appear without you and handle the cross-examination on distance and calibration for you. If you want the wider context on speed enforcement and defenses, the speeding, reckless, and aggressive driving knowledge hub ties it all together.
There is no single magic number in the statute, but a reliable pace requires the officer to hold a constant following distance long enough to be sure the gap is not changing. Officers are commonly trained to follow the target vehicle for at least two-tenths of a mile. A pace that lasts only a few seconds, or one taken while the officer was still closing the distance, is much weaker.
Yes, more often than tickets based on radar or lidar. Pacing depends on the officer’s judgment of distance and on the patrol car’s speedometer being calibrated. If the following distance was not truly steady, the pace was too short, the speedometer had no calibration record, or the road had curves, hills, or heavy traffic, the reading can be challenged. It is still officer testimony, so results depend on the facts.
It should be. The entire pace depends on the cruiser’s speedometer reading correctly, and speedometers can drift out of accuracy. The State should be able to produce a calibration record for that vehicle. If it cannot, the foundation for the alleged speed is missing, which is a strong point to raise in your defense.
Law Offices of David R. Waranch — 301-563-9575 · toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español.
Last updated: August 2026. Statutory references: Md. Code, Transp. § 21-801.1 (maximum speed limits); § 16-402 (point assessments); Crim. Proc. § 6-220 (probation before judgment). This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.