a couple of hours ago i was driving through a 25mph zone and i was going around 30 something. a cop was coming toward me and then once i past him he turned around and pulled me over. he said he clocked me going 41 but i definitly wasnt. can a police radar detect your speed when you are driving toward it?

I just looked at the ticket again and guess what, the cop didnt specify whether he used any equipment to clock my speed. So i should have a better chance of getting out of it right?

 

yes im pretty sure thats the only time they can detect your speed. (when your infront of them )

 

Well in towns outside of Chicago, some pigs have radars in the back as well. They are usually on so even when you come up behind them they still know how fast you are going.

This is on outskirts though.

 

New police Radar have the ability to detect traffic coming and going. The officer can either be in motion or stationary. New Radar can detect and lock in speeds of up to two vehicles at the same time and detect Radar/Ladar jammers.

Ladar, the officer can only detect coming and going and the officer can not be in motion.

 

Food for thought.

1. Is your car speedometer accurate?

2. Maybe the officer locked you when you weren't looking at your speed and you were going 41 but slowed down when you saw him and at this time you looked down and is now going 30mph.

 

definitely, I used to work in piscataway and my detector would go crazy whever I had a cop cruising around. although I would hardly speed around there since there always seemed to be a cop lurking somewhere

 

The police have been using doppler radar for 30 years at least. This allows them to detect while moving. The cop might have shot someone else speeding and held the reading for you to show up.

 

on the ticket he didnt specify whether or not he used a radar

 

radar not radar detector

 

Just get a Valentine.... problem solved

 

Unless LEO uses laser or instant-on radar (which a lot of them now do) in which case every single detector out there is useless except in extremely rare cases of sheer luck.

 

so what do you guys think? can i get out of it since he didnt specify the equipment used on the ticket?

 

You wont get out of it.
Most of police use a tuning fork to test proper speeds before and after a shift. The officer will have papers to verify the yearly maintance and you will get a fine either way.


?????? Do you have larger rims or and were you looking at the gauge or the digital read out?? Cause they usualy vary.
Also -- a car from the factory can be off on speed by as much as ten MPH. Just something to think about.

 

My speedo is off by 1mph according to my digital. I set CC at 70 from digital and the other shows 71, not biggy. A tuning fork? wtf

 

Ok. local cops around here have forward and rear facing radar. it also has instant on mode and is able to be focused to a specific lane of traffic. they can run Ka or K band, although the most advanced cops (and state troopers) have Ka band in the car.

I just got the new Passport 9500i with GPS and even as good as it is, you can still get caught with radar. I had a laser hit the other day. Around here, they are required by law to write how they attained your speed. On top of that, you can request a print out from the gun to further prove the ticket.

 

I think you're hosed. I've heard they can shoot you from the front or back... but not from the side. Maybe you should contest the ticket and if you're lucky the cop won't show. BTW- my digital speedometer is off by 2 mph (slow).

 

This brings a idea. It would cool if someone like V1 would also add a function, in which the radar could tell how fast you were going. But it would bouce off other surrounding objects to tell your speed.

 

Usman: You are correct. If you are a primary target, no radar/lidar detector is going to help you. It takes .04 of a second to lock in your speed. You will not react in time. Detectors are only good if you are behind the primary target and happen to pick up the reflections from the primary target.

Prior to using the Radar, an officer must test the Radar unit using a set of tunning forks specially for that device. The serial numbers on the forks MUST match the serial number on the unit. Test also makes sure that the number display is working properly (All 8888) so that if a light is burned out, a 3 doesn't look like a 7.

This is why in court, the officer can testify that the device was working properly when he locked in your speed. Newer devices have built in tunning forks and will self test on startup.

There is no such option. The devices do not store speeds nor do they come with printers. In fact, after a few seconds (depending on the manufacuter) the speed is erase from the equipment.

 

Radar works from the doppler system, Lidar works from bouncing laser off an object. So if you have an object, no matter at what angle, you will get a reflection thus a speed. However, if you are at a 0 deg. angle (headon) the reading is more accurate. Lets say you are at a 30 deg. angle, the speed detected will acutally be lower than the acutal speed. This is to your benifit.
The device can not detect a faster speed.

This is possible because on the Radar device, it shows the patrol car's speed. However, the technology is not yet there to make it small enough to be consumer user friendly.

 

In most cases, the the cosine effect is in the driver's favor.

Moving radar (radar which the cop uses while he himself is moving) can actually give a reading higher than what the driver is actually going. The effect is usually very small, and given the speeds you were going, 1mph maybe 2 at most.