PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh police have incorrectly issued hundreds of speeding tickets since October, and they're asking anyone who may have received one to request a hearing in Traffic Court.

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Motorcycle officers from the Special Deployment Division wrote the tickets using a system called LIDAR -- Light Detection and Ranging. It's not radar -- although it is similar -- because only state police have the authority to use radar for speed detection.

The problem is that, in many cases, city officers used LIDAR as a standalone device instead of using it in conjunction with the approved VASCAR and ENRADD systems, police spokeswoman Diane Richard said.

VASCAR is short for Visual Average Speed Computer and Recorder, which involves the use of a stopwatch and a pair of white lines painted on a road.

About 650 tickets were handed out based on speeds that were detected with standalone LIDAR, and the recipients will be able to see that marked on their citations, Richard said.

On Tuesday, Chief Nate Harper said that he is sorry for the error, saying motorists can seek full reimbursement from the courts for those tickets.

"First off, I'd like to apologize for any inconvenience to the motorists out there that might have been affected," Harper said.

Anyone who has not yet paid the fine on a LIDAR-only ticket should request a court hearing, but those who did pay the fine should send a copy of the ticket and a request for reimbursement to Harper's office at 1203 Western Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, 15233.

The police bureau will work with insurance companies to repay drivers and eliminate points from their licenses, Richard said.

Harper blames all the tickets on two officers who misunderstood instructions from supervisors that the equipment was only on loan for testing.

"The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police will no longer test and evaluate any equipment that has not been approved for service by the state of Pennsylvania," Harper said on Tuesday.

Since March, Team 4 had been investigating and filing Right to Know law requests about the fact that Pittsburgh police had been illegally issuing speeding tickets using LIDAR.

Here's what Pennsylvania's State Police Commissioner Jeff Miller told Team 4 when asked about the issue previously.

"Well, as far as I know, the law would have to be changed to allow the local police to use radar, and LIDAR would have to be an approved device for either local or state police to use before it could be employed," said Miller.

Motorist Jeff Grasha said he received a speeding ticket from an officer who used LIDAR, but said the officer told him police were allowed to use the device since October.

"I asked the officer, I said, 'You know, how did you time me?'" said Grasha. "And he said, 'Well, it was LIDAR.' And I told him, 'Well, I don't think you're allowed to use that.' And another officer came over and said, 'Well, yeah. We've been able to use it since October.' And he said, 'It's radar we're not allowed to use.' And that didn't seem right."

LIDAR is no longer used by the bureau, police said.

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