Got Radar?

I used to shoot IPSC and there were a number of cops also shooting.
During the breaks or lunch we'd listen to their war stories and 'quotas' would come up every now and then. The sergeants often said they don't have any specified 'quotas', per se, but during their quarterly evaluations they'd take the number of tickets written into consideration. If one trooper wasn't keeping up with the rest he was gigged for it. Made no difference if he just didn't feel the motorist deserved a ticket or not he was 'expected' to keep up with the rest of the barracks if he wanted good evaluations.

I've been stopped a few times by radar and asked to see the radar readout that's supposedly locked on, then never let me see it. There's also no way to verify if the speed the instrument is locked on is actually yours...that's QUESTIONABLE.

They're also supposed to be able to demonstrate the instrument's accuracy, usually with a serial numbered tuning fork always with the instrument. They often can't do it. The fork isn't available or some such...that's QUESTIONABLE.

Out in the boonies they often issue a disproportionate number of tickets to out of state/county vehicles knowing they won't usually bother to take the time off work to make the two or three court appearances to enter pleas, etc...this curious coincidence is ... QUESTIONABLE.

I know first hand that SOME officers do lie on the stand! I was on my bike proceeding up a hill. Cop was parked at the curb with aft-looking radar and identifying his targets via his side view mirror??? He says I was doing 42 in a posted 30. BS! I was going at the most 28! The traffic he clocked was moving in the opposite direction, in an adjoining county.

He was using an early Cobra radar which didn't indicate if the measured vehicle was coming towards him or away from him. The doppler shift will be the same. He testified there was no other traffic in sight and that was an outright lie! He was also pointed in the direction of nearby high tension power lines, which the Cobra operating manual says not to do. Opposing traffic was all over the place...that's QUESTIONABLE.

I'd worked for over 20 years in communications with microwave, radio, done coverage and propagation surveys, showed the judge a couple of my magazine articles in the trade magazines and was accepted as expert witness. He wouldn't even consider that the officer might be in error. He kept looking at his watch too, must've had a tee time.

Whit

 

Have a BEL mounted next to the interior rear view mirror-they make a power adaptor that hooks into your dome light.
PAID for itself MANY TIMES--Not necessarily a speeder--it keeps you more aware your speed.
Especilally at night when there is little traffic.

 

True 'jammers' are not legal. It is a transmitter and must be licensed by the FCC.

Awhile back there was some success with photo radars. Some of the guys were attaching a small slave flash unit near the license plate...

;->

 

My best method for avoiding spendy tickets was the bigger tires and the re-gear. I pretty much max out at 80 and 75 is the fastest that i would want to run it for extended periods. 90% of the highways around here are 65MPH and the average traffic flows at around 75-90 gota love massholes

 

Wow, lots of good stuff here guys, Thanks for all of the info!

 

cops dont get tickets...

you get shit on 40+ hrs a week by everyone, and do it for short money, there has to be SOME perks to the job. sorry.

 

Lol, you should see my job. Atleast they can carry a gun!!!

 

Responses in bold.

Psht.. I wish that were true. I've been pulled over twice in 13 years for speeding, and both times I received a ticket. Once, I was IN MY CRUISER, coming home from the Academy. Second time was from a State Trooper that lived three houses down from me. Paid them both because I was in fact speeding.

 

A lot of people have crappy jobs and still obey the law. 65 in a 45 near a school and he gets off? Sorry, but knowingly breaking the law because you can doesn't make it right.

 

Hey if you work at Burger King you get a discount on your lunch ......do you think that is unfair also. It's professional courtesy.If that cop is rolling around on the side of the road with some scumbag it most likely will be the off duty cop that stops to help him.

 

A cop pulled over in his cruiser. That's kinda funny. LOL maybe the other cop thought you should know better?

I've had bizarre encounters with cops, but on simple speeding tickets I have driven away with warnings as often as tickets. I kinda think of a speeding ticket as a licensing fee.

 

Could be because the vast majority of police you see on cop shows say they would rather you not get involved because then they have to protect you and themselves. I've never heard a cop say they'd rather some random citizen stepped into a fight. Maybe an Army guy or another cop, but that's about it.

 

Not sure what lunch has to do with law, but the repected Po's I know try to set a good example and expect it out of their officers. Breaking the law the same as a lunch discount? WOW!

 

No way...That can't happen. Everything is always exactally like on TV...

 

I don't mean CSI or something like that. I mean reality-oriented ones where they actually interview real officers.

Wow. Thanks for assuming I can't figure out that distinction?

 

I don't think he assumed that at all.

There are something like 800,000 cops/federal LEOs in the US. You've seen maybe 100 on cops shows-That is a sample size of .0125% of the total.

Basing a decision off of a television show (no matter how factual) is not a good policy. Between bias of the show creators, editing, and general made for TV BS...You aren't getting the whole picture.

 

this is how i am. sometimes i just don't realize my speed drifted up to 5 or 8 over. it'll go off and make me slow down. i don't even mind the false alarms. they slow me down too. but i'm much so much more of a chill driver now that i'm 29 than when i was 21. i was young and invincible then. ha.

 

Well I think it's assumed you aren't getting the whole picture on TV but it's like that every time you see an officer on the news telling the media much of anything.

"this high speed chase didn't go well because we had some yahoo trying to help us by blocking the guy in. He's lucky he wasn't killed."

"This guy wrestled the perp to the ground, turned out the perp had a knife. That's why the public should let *us* do our work."

Etc.

So... I guess the news media has some sort of agenda in cutting out the part of the interview where they said, "Oh hell what are we saying? Everybody jump on the guy!"

Also... Where do you guys live that you see people wrestling with the cops constantly and stop to help? Good lord, I'm staying out of your neighborhoods.

 

Case and point speeding cruiser creates a wreck. They were racing
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d63_1258554864