Good morning/afternoon,

 

Just curious how far out the police set the radar when clocking traffic.  Sometimes you see the cop way out, but always wondered if they can clock you at extreme ranges.

 

EX: If I come over a rise and I see a cop in the median, lets say 1/2-3/4 miles out from me, can he clock me that far out with a radar gun?  Anybody know what the police generally set the radar guns to, range wise?

 

I assume the laser guns can go to infinity, and can be aimed at a car 2-miles out.  Not every traffic patrol has one though.

 

Also, how would an officer know exactly which car is speeding in a large volume of traffic using radar?  Does he/she set the radar to hit one particular lane (narrow band) or can they cover all 3-4 lanes of a highway by widening the RF band and basically guess/assume which car is speeding.

 

Just wondering because I has just passed a cop while I was going 20MPH over the limit (doing 90 in a 70), but he didn't budge out of his spot.  Wondering if he was clocking another lane, or just couldn't get a read on my car, since I was about 1/2-3/4 miles out from him when I had seen him sitting in the median, I hit the brakes and brought it down to 5-mph over...but I thought I was cooked for sure, but he didn't move.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

DrDetroit

Edited May 13, 201411 yr by drdetroit

Maybe he was just doing paperwork. Just because he's on the side of the road doesn't mean he's running radar.

 

From my observations with my local department, we use handheld laser for the most part. The handheld laser is very precise and has a very long range, and it's equipped with a magnified sight just like a firearm. There is no doubt what car you're aiming at with the type of system we use.

 

The cars here are also equipped with in car mounted front and rear facing radar, which they rarely use when stationary. They'll use it more when they are driving behind a car or someone comes up behind them and passes them. It's not always 100% certain which car it's reading if there is a large volume of traffic, but that's where the officer's training and experience come in. LEO's here are trained at the academy to asses vehicle speed with their eyes, and they have to be correct +/- 5mph to pass that part of the academy, or so I'm told. Plus, common sense takes over; if you're driving 55 mph and your rear facing radar says someone behind you is going 75, it's not that hard to look in the mirror and figure out which car it is.

Keep in mind that the officer has to do the reading at a range that the judge will accept as reasonable, the device might be effective for miles, but the officer has to testify that the radar reading was indeed taken from the stopped vehicle and that the vehicle wasn't in a zone where higher speeds are allowed.

 

It's preferable to place the radar separately from marked units, especially on motorways where one officer can assume radar position on a overpass while bike cops (or patrol cars) can stop speeding vehicles.

 

 

The police here prefer to use average speed devices (ProViDa). The device calculates the average speed based on  the time and distance covered from when the officer activated the device to when he ended the reading,  it allows for 100% accurate readings (device locks if it needs calibration), radars have an error margin of 3% (in favour of the motorist), it can furthermore be easier for a motorist to "evade" a radar.