HONOLULU -- The Hawaii state Supreme Court is making it tougher to prove speeding cases, but the Honolulu prosecutor’ s office says it is close to fixing the latest challenge.

In two ruling last month, the Supreme Court raised the bar for police and prosecutors trying to prosecute speeders, especially in cases where police officers use their vehicle speedometers to catch someone going 30 miles over the limit.

Most speeders are caught with laser guns, but police must often use their own cars to pave a speeder and confirm the speed with their vehicle speedometer. For years, officers would prove their speedometers were accurate by showing a judge a speedometer check card they carried with them, to prove the speedometer had been tested. But now that card alone is NOT good enough for the court.

“On top of that they have to establish that the procedures used to test the speedometer was approved by the manufacturer of the speed testing device,” said defense attorney Patrick McPherson, an expert in traffic cases.

None of this was a problem before the legislature decided to turn excessive speeding into a crime. That raised the level of proof to “beyond a reasonable doubt," and that opened the door for defense attorneys to attack the accuracy of the police equipment

So now, prosecutors must prove that the dynamometer at Roy's Kalihi Automotive that checks the speedometers has been calibrated and that the technician, usually owner Roy Ozaki himself, has been qualified by the manufacturer.

Right now, that documentation hasn't come to court.

“I think everybody should be aware of this who gets a speeding ticket,” McPherson said.

The public defenders office says Roy's Automotive’s test machine may never meet the courts requirements. But prosecutors say it has already been updated, and getting the paperwork together for the court is just a matter of time.

“We feel that Roy has modern equipment we feel that we can meet those two legal requirements,” said Deputy Prosecutor Rene Sonobe Hong.

Prosecutors said the excessive speeding law is working and will continue to work. “In this whole process we are losing sight of that. This is a public safety issue to keep people safe. Speed kills. People need to slow down,” said Sonobe Hong.

Police laser guns have gone through a similar challenge since the law took affect and now are back in good standing with the courts. But defense attorneys say the Supreme Court's attitude about testing police equipment could lead to a new challenge -- of the machine used to test alleged drunken drivers.