GMcNair
Key Veteran
Location: Birmingham AL
| I gotta chime in here. Steve, I have to correct another statement you made:
| Quote |
| First, is the speeding ticket. If a police officer is using a radar gun, you should expect it to be extremly accurate. The radar guns are calibrated at the start of the shift, several times during the shift and at the end of the shift. As long as the officer swears in cout that it was functioning properly, it is almost impossible to fight a radar ticket.
|
First and foremost, radar guns are not calibrated at the start, during, or even at the end. They are "tested for calibration". This is a very urgent point that must be clarified, because the semantics involved make or break a court case for an LE officer. I have never met and officer who was trained or technically qualified to perform a calibration. They could only test the calibration with a tuning fork. The fork resonated a harmonic to simulate at least a couple of speeds. if the speed appeared accurate on the readout, then the officer could assume the unit was functioning properly. Here's the semantics. The officer tests the calibration of the system at the start, during, and after the shift. If the officer states that he/she calibrated it, then they just set themselves up for a fall with the defense attorney. I know this seems silly, but it's court truth.
Yes, doppler guns can be accurate, but they can also accurately clock the speed of the hvac fan inside the patrol car. I could clock my fan set on high at approximately 28mph, just simply pointing the unit at the dash. I could clock a tree at 12mph. And we were trained that as the angle of attack grew from our gun to the target, the indicated speed of the target would fall off dramatically. In other words, unless the target was within an approximate 5 degree range of the beam, the error would be in favor of the target. Doppler also reads the largest target, not the fastest. If there was another, larger vehicle in the approximate beam of the target, that vehicle would become the target. This is one of the reasons for "reasonable and prudent" speed laws which exist for officer discretion speed charges. As an example, if I had pointed my radar at a semi being passed by a corvette, the semi's speed would register on my unit. It was up to me to determine if the corvette was moving faster than the semi, and to approximate the car's speed accordingly.
As for visually judging the speed of a car, the "real" reason police do this is to reduce the "on" time of the unit. Radar detectors were useless in my patrol area, because I only turned the beam on when I could tell the car was speeding.
Steve, this isn't a "bash Steve" post, so please don't misread it. I just wanted to clarify the point you were making. And the photos you posted are mighty nifty. Loved the pointer hover trick. I too find it hard to believe that two officers would write tickets for the same offense within the same jurisdiction. I'm curious to know if a pair of rookies were just a wee-bit gung-ho. The three most dangerous people in the world:
A newly licensed doctor
A newly trained police officer
A recently licensed teenage driver
Typically armed with only book-smarts, and not much real world/practical training, each has the ability to ruin another person's life in a matter of seconds.
Matlock....BSL, Cumberland, or UA?
Oh, and Ivan, I can guarantee one thing. If your fiance tells the judge her speedometer indicated 51, then she will be admitting guilt to speeding in a 45 zone. Repeat after me: "Your honor, my speedometer indicated I was doing 44!" |
