JOERM
Member
Other then seeing them on your dash board that is. I would think that cops don't like those who have radar detectors.
Joe
Can Cops detect radar detectors?
- Thread starter JOERM
- Start date
Other then seeing them on your dash board that is. I would think that cops don't like those who have radar detectors.
Joe
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Photog
Member
I don't think so. I have a good friend who was a state trooper for 30 years. He said that most state troopers would just turn on their units when they suspected a speeder. By that time, detected or not, the speeder was toast.
I have never owned one and don't want to start a fight here, but FWIW, there is a consumer advocate in Denver who offered anyone who made and sold radar detectors to come on the air and prove they worked. He wanted one mounted in his Corvette and he would drive. The police were on board with it. Of all the calls from suppliers and manufacturers, not one of them EVER took up the challenge.
I have never owned one and don't want to start a fight here, but FWIW, there is a consumer advocate in Denver who offered anyone who made and sold radar detectors to come on the air and prove they worked. He wanted one mounted in his Corvette and he would drive. The police were on board with it. Of all the calls from suppliers and manufacturers, not one of them EVER took up the challenge.
Centenniel
Member
The answer to your question is "kinda..." While running radar, if you decide to "shoot" an approaching vehicle you believe is speeding (that takes a calibrated eye) and the vehicle suddenly brakes hard, that is a pretty good indicator that it has a detector, especially if the driver likely hasn't seen your cruiser yet. Many drivers mount the detector on the visor. Some of them have a small light (red, etc.) that lights up when a radar devise is working in the area, that is another visual clue. I'm retired now, but I never "hated" drivers who used detectors, but I was a lot less inclined to give that person a beak that one who didn't have one.
hillmonkey
Member
I didn't know you could get a break on a speeding ticket without a set of boobs...
Wickahoney
US Veteran
I have a younger brother, Roy Boy, that is an EE. He was also a WHIZO in the back seat of a F4 Phantom.
He has a 1973 Dodge Dart Sport with a tweaked 340 and a high speed rear end, 2:73s.
His take was that the average radar detector wasn't worth the money, that by the time you detected the radar, you were already caught.
He and the guys in the electronics shop at the Nevada Air Gaurd came up with a spurious emitter and a radar "jammer". A random generator that just blasts a radar/doppler signal down the road at about 10x the power the detector in the patrol car is using.
The first one simply sent a signal that could be set for any speed. So set it at the speed limit and go. Everything was in the trunk and under the hood with the emitter in the grill.
We ran it trough the radar on my patrol car and it worked just fine. The down side was I could tell it was going way faster. Now I suppose in the real world a LEO would/could search the car. I'm not sure if you could and it would depend on the laws in any given state.
The next variant was much niftier and smaller and harder to "detect" it simply blasted a radar signature down the road at widely varied signal at a very high rate of change and totally random in nature. So 45, 55, 23, 117, 189, 55, .........
The darned thing actually worked. As a LEO I would think your first impression would be that your radar was malfunctioning.
I think it's still under the hood of the Dart.
The "reality check" came when I asked him to build me ne for my T/A Challenger. Do you have $5000 you don't know what to do with?? Okay, I'll just drive at less than 10 over and take my luck. I've paid one ticket in the interveening years and it sure didn't cost $5000!!
It is/was cool though.
RWT
He has a 1973 Dodge Dart Sport with a tweaked 340 and a high speed rear end, 2:73s.
His take was that the average radar detector wasn't worth the money, that by the time you detected the radar, you were already caught.
He and the guys in the electronics shop at the Nevada Air Gaurd came up with a spurious emitter and a radar "jammer". A random generator that just blasts a radar/doppler signal down the road at about 10x the power the detector in the patrol car is using.
The first one simply sent a signal that could be set for any speed. So set it at the speed limit and go. Everything was in the trunk and under the hood with the emitter in the grill.
We ran it trough the radar on my patrol car and it worked just fine. The down side was I could tell it was going way faster. Now I suppose in the real world a LEO would/could search the car. I'm not sure if you could and it would depend on the laws in any given state.
The next variant was much niftier and smaller and harder to "detect" it simply blasted a radar signature down the road at widely varied signal at a very high rate of change and totally random in nature. So 45, 55, 23, 117, 189, 55, .........
The darned thing actually worked. As a LEO I would think your first impression would be that your radar was malfunctioning.
I think it's still under the hood of the Dart.
The "reality check" came when I asked him to build me ne for my T/A Challenger. Do you have $5000 you don't know what to do with?? Okay, I'll just drive at less than 10 over and take my luck. I've paid one ticket in the interveening years and it sure didn't cost $5000!!
It is/was cool though.
RWT
truckemup97
Member
There are radar detector detectors. Only a couple of very high end radar detectors are truly undetectable; most leak a small amount of radiation (radio waves, not nuclear) when turned on. The detector detectors sense this. They are often used in weigh stations, as radar detectors are illegal nationwide in commercial vehicles. I would also imagine that the occasional cruser has one in states like Virginia, where they are illegal for everyone.
So yes, cops can detect radar detectors.
So yes, cops can detect radar detectors.
truckemup97
Member
That was my take on them.
CH47gunner
US Veteran
No - at least to my knowledge.
I use 'em religiously, I've never had a ticket when the cops used radar, and I was using my radar detector. My wife commutes 50 miles each way to work, she hasn't had one since she started using her detecter either
Also, the key is to slow down subtely by using your emergency brake "slightly". That way your front end doesn't dip down and your brake lights don't show.
I'd also use a jammer if it was legal here. But, I believe the cops can figure out if you're using a jammer.
Here's a pic of my 1982 'Vette with the Radar detector mounted "unobtrusively" on the dash-mat.
Bruce
I use 'em religiously, I've never had a ticket when the cops used radar, and I was using my radar detector. My wife commutes 50 miles each way to work, she hasn't had one since she started using her detecter either
Also, the key is to slow down subtely by using your emergency brake "slightly". That way your front end doesn't dip down and your brake lights don't show.
I'd also use a jammer if it was legal here. But, I believe the cops can figure out if you're using a jammer.
Here's a pic of my 1982 'Vette with the Radar detector mounted "unobtrusively" on the dash-mat.
Bruce
GatorFarmer
Member
Yep, here in VA the police have radar detector detectors. Of course some radar detectors can detect the detectors and shut themselves off.
If you want to gamble with FCC problems, there are radar jammers that might or might not fall into a legal gray area (long story).
If you want to gamble with FCC problems, there are radar jammers that might or might not fall into a legal gray area (long story).
ohiobuckeye
Member
Very true. Modern radar units only emit a very brief signal when the traffic cop punches the button to check the speed of the targeted vehicle. If you're the only car on the road, when you hear the beep, you've already "won" the ticket. On the other hand, your detector will also warn you when the cops are checking other vehicles ahead of you, for quite a distance, so they do still have some early warning capability unless you are the only vehicle targeted.
ohiobuckeye
Member
It's illegal to interfere with any legally transmitted rf signal. That said, I doubt if there's any patrol cars capable of pinpointing a jamming signal causing random speed indications as described by wickahoney.
jholder
Member
Cops running speed traps don't need radar to trump up a ticket.
Last ticket I got was 65 in 50, only problem was I was doing 45 because oncoming drivers were flashing me 5 miles ahead of the speed trap. State trooper swears it was 65, offered to show me the radar without me even asking.
I go in to pay the ticket a week later, the clerk says, "Oh, you're another one of XXXX's 65 in 50 tickets." Amazing how all 20 tickets he wrote that day were all the same exact speed.
Last ticket I got was 65 in 50, only problem was I was doing 45 because oncoming drivers were flashing me 5 miles ahead of the speed trap. State trooper swears it was 65, offered to show me the radar without me even asking.
I go in to pay the ticket a week later, the clerk says, "Oh, you're another one of XXXX's 65 in 50 tickets." Amazing how all 20 tickets he wrote that day were all the same exact speed.
Gutpile Charlie
US Veteran
Call me old fashioned, but I've never had a desire for a radar detector.
I'm 68 years old and have been driving since 16. I've never even been stopped for speed, let alone received a ticket.
I just can't see why anyone would want one? Yes, I know there are speed traps where cops lay in wait for the unaware, and yes, I've accidentally found myself over the speed limit, on occasions, but never by design.
Why? To me it just makes you look like you are deliberately seeking to break the law?
Some speed limits may make sense, and some don't, but I'm not going to worry about it.
I think this is much ado about nothing.
I'm 68 years old and have been driving since 16. I've never even been stopped for speed, let alone received a ticket.
I just can't see why anyone would want one? Yes, I know there are speed traps where cops lay in wait for the unaware, and yes, I've accidentally found myself over the speed limit, on occasions, but never by design.
Why? To me it just makes you look like you are deliberately seeking to break the law?
Some speed limits may make sense, and some don't, but I'm not going to worry about it.
I think this is much ado about nothing.
jrm53
Member
This is a little off of radar det. but when I was in the BMW car club of America there was a company that sold license plate covers that would not let a photo radar camera get your plate, they were clear but some how diffused the picture, dont know if they really worked.
dlstewart01
US Veteran
License plate covers are illegal in Tennessee.
oldRoger
US Veteran
I bought one during the 55 MPH days, Corvettes and 55 MPH speed limits don't go together.
I still have a Valentine I in both my car and truck. I am not in much of a hurry any more, but they have saved my bacon a time or two when I don't slow down fast enough when the limit changes.
I still have a Valentine I in both my car and truck. I am not in much of a hurry any more, but they have saved my bacon a time or two when I don't slow down fast enough when the limit changes.
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