ARTICLE ON POLICE RADAR USE by MPO Donald Ingerski #1446 Recently, I have been seeing a lot of interest by motorcyclists in installing radar detectors on their respective rides. While this is legal in a vast majority of states, it should be pointed out that it is ILLEGAL in Virginia and the District of Columbia. Regardless of their legality, I believe there is a surprising ignorance of how police radar works and that radar detector manufacturers capitalize on that ignorance to expand purchases of their products by the public. For instance, there are dozens of ads suggesting the necessity of laser radar detectors as "laser" is touted to be the latest tool in law enforcement speed detection. What these ads fail to mention is that laser devices are NOT authorized for use by all law enforcement agencies. For instance, police in Virginia and the District of Columbia are not authorized by law to use laser. Therefore, the old standby of conventional police microwave radar is the base tool of police speed monitoring. Yet, how much do YOU, the average citizen, know about radar and how it REALLY works? I KNOW radar. I earn my living with it. I am a police motorcycle officer for the Fairfax County (VA) Police Department, located in northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. I have ridden police motorcycles for 13 years and been an officer for 20 years with two departments. I have an A.A. and B.A. degree, both in law enforcement. I am certified by the Virginia Criminal Justice Service as a general police instructor and by The Institute of Police Technology and Management, Jacksonville, FL, as a police motorcycle instructor. I have undergone 120 hours of formal instruction on the use of both X-Band and K-Band radar use. I have issued thousands of tickets and yes, a lot of those have been with using radar! Finally, I am also a member of A.B.A.T.E. (Old Dominion Chapter), AMA, AIM, and the Wild Pigs Motorcycle Club. For pleasure riding, I ride a 1991 Harley-Davidson Softail. There are a lot of articles with a general descriptive view of radar but most of them are hardly accurate as to how police radar is used in Virginia. After reading them, a reader would have the impression that radar is a "rattle-trap" of sorts and that most people cited are innocent victims. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are several reasons for this. I'll explain each one as to why. Most radar experts are correct when they state that an officer needs more than a few hours of training. As for my home state Virginia, the law requires every officer or deputy to undergo at least eight hours of training. The larger departments go even further, having their officers undergo the 40 hour course recommended by the Federal government. These experts are also correct about the closest car not necessarily being the one tracked by radar. Some articles "demonstrate" this using a truck and a smaller and sleeker car such as a Corvette. This comparison was basically correct but at the extreme. Such articles fail to mention that a Corvette with it's sleek lines and fiberglass body parts makes it difficult for radar to reflect the microwaves back. This example makes the distances between the truck and the car much greater than would be the case with most vehicles of conventional make. Officers in Virginia are trained to recognize that vehicle sizes can make a difference as to vehicle or target identification. Police in Virginia are instructed to use radar as a TOOL to AID IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF SPEEDERS. Similar to a carpenter's hammer, the tool does not make the cabinet, the carpenter or user does. Radar merely verifies what the officer sees. The officer is trained to approximate speeds of vehicles that he observes. I know many officers who can state the speeds within two miles per hour three out of four times! When the officer observes an apparent speeder, the radar will then VERIFY THE OBSERVATION with a speed read-out. In other words, the officer sees a car that looks to be going about 40 and the radar shows a "42". The radar verified the observation and tells the officer the ACTUAL speed was 42. Officers do not rely SOLELY on a read-out but in conjunction with what they have OBSERVED. Radar experts are quite right about radar not distinguishing a particular vehicle, but the officer can with the aid of the radar. For instance, you're watching traffic in a 25 mph zone and see two vehicles approaching. The closest one appears (OBSERVATION, remember?) to be doing around 30 but the other is closing in (ie. FASTER). You look at the radar and you see a 32,31,31,32 and then a 40,40. You look up and see the closing car now abruptly slowing (Driver sees you) and the radar now is rapidly showing 40,39,35,32, etc. Now YOU tell me which car was the speeder. The officer knows, the driver knows, and YOU know. This is called TRACKING HISTORY and that is how a radar officer distinguishes which vehicle is doing what speed. How about those articles or TV news reports regarding interference readings? They are right, they do exist. What they fail to mention is if they will override a target vehicle reading. Out of thousands of radar tickets I have issued, I have NEVER, repeat NEVER had an interference reading override a target vehicle reflection. Once I tried to get an interference reading from some buzzing hi-power lines with three different radars. I was maybe 100' directly under them and not one would give me a reading. Interference is most always of a constant nature. When the officer uses radar and gets a reading with no cars then that tips him off to the interference. I suppose it is possible to have something so strong as to override a reflection but an officer would recognize it and go elsewhere. Simply put, interference causing a motorist to get a ticket is extremely rare. As for the accuracy of the radar units themselves, the National Bureau of Standards conducted extensive tests on police radars. Do you know what they found? That police radars average an accuracy percentage rate of 99.44%! Just like Ivory soap. Some pro-radar detectors articles have a few ideas on what to do if you do get cited. First of all, in Virginia, you DO NOT have a right to see the speed read-out except in the case of VASCAR (VASCAR is not radar). Go ahead and ask but don't think you were wronged if the officer says no. In most instances, particularly with hand-held radar, the officer does not "lock" the speed in anyway. Remember the example I gave you about identifying the vehicle while it was braking (ie.slowing)? Ask to see the make and serial number? Let's be realistic. Radars cost several thousands of dollars and the officer is responsible for it. Would YOU let a stranger look at your Rolex? I doubt it. If you need the info, the officer will have it in court. There is an organization called R.A.D.A.R. that defends "your right to receive and detect radar signals" and how they've defeated 125 detector bans. Well, they didn't do so well in Virginia. Virginia's ban has been upheld in the Virginia Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme refused to even hear the case! Additionally, many anti-radar articles describe how so few radar cases will be contested. This indicates to me that radar is apprehending true violators. I'm not saying that there will not be ANYONE getting a "bum" radar ticket. I am saying that as a TOOL, police radar IS accurate and it is the operator who is responsible for it's use. With the training that officers in Virginia receive, police radar is very effective at accurately determining who is speeding and who is not. Finally, how does radar deal with motorcycles? Very poorly, from a law enforcement view. The fact is, motorcycles, because of their small size and reflective areas, are difficult to detect by conventional radar. Except under ideal conditions, radar will not track a motorcycle until it is very close. Buy a radar detector? Sure, but by the time radar is tracking your ride you should have spotted the officer or trooper ahead of time. If you didn't, you should ride straight to your nearest motor vehicle administration and have that eyeglass restriction put on your license! For motorcycles, its VASCAR and not radar that's going to get you. There is no pre-warning "defense" against VASCAR. But that's another subject altogether. Ride safe.