Fifer said the voided tickets represent just a fraction of the 19,658 speeding citations handed out by Alexandria police in that time period.

The tickets were issued by officers who measured how fast motorists were traveling by using speedometers in certain patrol vehicles that had not been properly tested, the city said.

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The speedometers were not necessarily faulty, Fifer said. But after the city discovered problems with the routine testing regimen, it decided it could not vouch for the accuracy of the speedometers in those patrol vehicles during the three-year span.

He said officials tallied the number of questionable tickets and offered to refund all the fines.

“We’re trying to do the right thing here, erring on the side of caution,” he said.

A city supervisor learned in October 2017 that speedometer tests had not been properly conducted on five police vehicles, officials said in a statement. “Following an initial internal review, the City Manager directed in January 2019 that the City’s internal auditor conduct a formal investigation,” which found problems with more tests during the three-year period.

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“Some vehicles had not been tested frequently enough, and some service technicians applied inconsistent test standards,” the statement said.

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Fifer said Alexandria has since upgraded the speedometer-testing process for police vehicles.

“Although the auditor did not find that any of the police officers were aware the speedometers in their vehicles had not been adequately tested, a copy of the current speedometer test record will now be maintained in police cruisers,” the city said.

After the city compiled a list of citations issued by officers using the vehicles in the relevant time frame, the Alexandria commonwealth’s attorney’s office, at the city’s behest, asked the local District Court “to vacate the resulting convictions and dismiss the cases.”

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