radar detectors

[Wonko The Sane]

Originally Posted by chgolatin2

A few years ago I caught a guy with a Red Porsche Turbo Carrera speeding at 182 per hour he had a radar detector, guess what happen to him, went to jail, got his car impounded and lost his license forgot to mention all the money that was spent on legal fees...

Ummm... It doesn't matter WHAT kind of electronic countermeasure the person has who is stupid enough to do 182 per hour.. Remember that even without a positive radar image, you guys can still site him for reckless endangerment and a host of others (Hopefully including "being a dumbass and putting every single other person on the road at risk!"), as well as the fact that there is no way to slow down from 182MPH down to 80 (or whatever is the "safe" speed) without you guys noticing... The only way you would be able to drive 180 MPH, is to honestly believe that you're not going to get caught. There's nothing else that would protect you from that amount of stupidity.

The thing that you don't mention with radar is that it bounces, which is how the detectors work... Sure the cop is using instant-on, but the only time you really won't know ahead of time is if there's no one else on the road. Any other time, the guy hits a car ahead of you, the radar bounces and you get notified (briefly). This is what makes radar detectors worth it to me and others to have in their cars.

Of course, that's what makes Laser oh-so-dangerous to us

Either way, cheers to an informative post

[RandallNeighbour]

Thank God laser units are so expensive and police departments put most of their cash into salaries and benefits, leaving very little cash leftover for new radar/laser guns!

Most departments only have a X number of laser guns that are shared between officers from what I have been told. True or not?

[dash22]

Wow... aircraft to catch speeders? I guess speeding is potentially quite dangerous.. and does cost some lives.. (although I personally think that it is mostly down to unskilled driving rather than speed per se) but isn't that kind of a lot of effort and money to expend?

It's pretty expensive to run planes and helicopters right? Surely there could be a better use for the money.. (at least the cops can claim that speeding tickets aren't revenue raising though i guess.. it would cost much more than they'd make)

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

The MN State Patrol uses a lot of aircraft surveillance to catch speed offenders. Supposedly, in Sept. '04, they wrote the fastest speeding ticket ever when they nabbed a kid on a motorcycle exceeding 200MPH (205 MPH actually), see: http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-09-21-speeder_x.htm .

I've never owned a detector, never had a speeding ticket, though I have been stopped numerous times. Got nice, sympathetic, cops sometimes, or successfully fought them in court, sometimes with a CFD (Continuance for Dismissal- agreement with the court that I wouldn't speed for a year and the ticket goes away).

A guy in one of the Car Clubs I belong to is an aircraft trooper. He once told a bunch of us that they look for two kinds of cars (since they cannot clock everyone, especially on a crowded highway). He said brightly colored cars and cars which make a lot of lane changes are the ones usually timed, so there may actually be something to having a car which is Ticket-Me Red or Stop-Me Yellow colored.

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99 (Guards Ticket-Me Red)

PS @ edevlin - sorry to hear about your mom, I'm going through something similar with my 84 y.o. mom right now too - hang in there, I hope for the best!

[RandallNeighbour]

They've been using the old "bear in the air" since the hayday of the CB radio... 1975! I remember being told by a toll booth attendant in Kansas that my radar detector probably wouldn't go off while on the turnpike... they had small aircraft that watched you cross a painted white line on the road or an X on the shoulder and started their stopwatch.

So my buddy had his head hanging out the window the whole 6 hours looking while I punched it to make up for lost time!

[edevlin]

"So to be honest, I see radar detectors as a waste of money and if the Police knows how to work his radar which some dont such as some suburban dept and big City depts then you'll be in for a BIG surprise! Some of you have experience your radar detectors activated from a Police squad unit the reason that happens is because the Officer has his Laser/Radar or Lidar speed detector activated instead of deactivated lucky for some of you for the lazyness of the officer."


Ouch, so my master plan looks flawed. I can just see myself painting my headlights license plates with a stealth coating (VEIL), turning on my radar detector and feeling somewhat safe to go a little over the limit on my long road trips. Then with a fase sense of security, getting a speeding ticket. I am curious, how many out there have gotten a speeding ticket when they were using their radar detectors?


Ed

[socratic]

Originally Posted by edevlin

" I am curious, how many out there have gotten a speeding ticket when they were using their radar detectors?

I once got pulled over by a cop when I had 3 (THREE!) radar detectors on my dash!

(I was testing them head to head to see which was best).

Turns out the cop simply saw me going over the speed limit...and where I'm from if a cop simply tells a judge that I was going faster than the limit, it is supposedly good enough.

Fortunately, he just gave me a warning though. But it goes to show that relying on technology is not always good enough.