Can Cops detect radar detectors?

[mohavesam]

Simple solution - don't use a radar/laser detector for speeding protection; just use it for "cop detection"!

The last speeding ticket I had, some 26 years ago, was easily beaten in the courtroom. There are basic tactics a thinking person can employ to get most tickets tossed out.

But I drive in dozens of states every year, and the best use of a detector (a GOOD detector) is just to locate the badged civil servants be they moving or stationary. A GOOD detector will give up to five miles/couple minutes advance notice and more depending on terrain & conditions and if the owner understands eighth-grade physics of radio & light beam travel. That's enough to cease texting, put down that newspaper or cell phone, or holster your double-stuffed fatburger and diet coke.

.

 

[Jellybean]

There are basic tactics a thinking person can employ to get most tickets tossed out.

I've never had one tossed out. I guess I've never ticketed a thinking person.

A GOOD detector will give up to five miles/couple minutes advance notice...

Not "will", it can, but it's not guaranteed. It sounds like you've been lucky for the last 26 years.

 

[44wheelman]

I've never had one tossed out. I guess I've never ticketed a thinking person

No, most thinking people avoid the ticket altogether.

 

[Bailey Boat]

Fellas, a radar detector is nothing more than a receiver, it doesn't emit anything. The radar unit emits the doppler signal (or laser) and the detector receives it. It's not rocket science, simple electronics. I have 2 detectors both made by Cinncinatti Microwave, the manufacturer of most radar units!!!!! I don't use mine to allow me to speed just to remind me to check my speed when I get a positive reception indicating that an officer is in the area and trolling for a fish.

 

[Jellybean]

Fellas, a radar detector is nothing more than a receiver, it doesn't emit anything

Yes it does. It emits a signal and can be detected just like radio scanners. That's how the detector detectors work.

 

[CJ]

Originally posted by JOERM:
[snip]
.....One time the darn thing was going off and on about every half mile, or when I went around a curve in the road or when a car came past me. It took me about 4 miles to figure it out, it was an unmarked state patrol in some beater car behind me. He passed me and I could see the red and blue lights in his back window. Sneaky guy.

I remember reading an article and seeing a picture in the local paper some years back picturing an old, beat up camper / pickup truck combo parked on the side of the Interstate in Washington. That beater camper was radaring the highway and radioing descriptions ahead to pursuit cars to pull over and ticket the speeders. Definitely sneaky in Washington!

IMO, being aware of your situational surroundings and driving half-way sanely trumps a radar detector.

 

[Thunderhawk88]

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.

Sounds like they share their radar gun with Goodland, Ks. I hear stories like that all the time there.