Radar Enforcement

[barton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I asked my brother to respond to a couple of statements that were posted
a couple of days ago to help clarify things a little. He's a Rverside,
CA County Sheriff. (He's into Major league Modified Volvos)But I still
love him....He's my brother.

Chris Barton
1995 540 6 speed, 18" Hamanns, BL/SS'd, & Many more mods left to do!!
L.A. Chapter BMWCCA



> Since when can the CHP use Radar?  This must be new since I left 2 years
> ago.

CHP has been using radar on most highways and freeways for a couple of
years now.  They were able to pass legislation allowing them to do so.

> Radar is so easy to beat in Court.  All you have do is ask to see the
> recalibration report which the manufacturer recommends every year.  If
> they
> have not had it serviced it could very easily be out of calibration.

Radar units are serviced as a routine by the manufacturer annually.  A
service report and certificate are provided for use in court by the
officer.  This is sufficient for most all courts.

> And if
> they try to pull that tuning fork crap then you ask when the tuning fork
> was
> last check for correct wavelength.

The tuning fork is serviced with the radar unit annually.  As noted
above, virtually all courts accept this as valid evidence of correct
tuning.

  Tuning forks are also subject to
> variance in Temp and humidity.

While everything on this planet is subject to variance in temperature
and humidity, tuning forks are generally accepted by the courts as
presumed accurate as long as the annual certification is good.

  Then you ask if this radar was checked
> at
> the beginning of the shift and if this RADAR is so accurate how come you
> have to calibrate it everyday before the shift begins.

This is an ignorant notion.  No radar units are ever calibrated using
tuning forks.  The ONLY purpose of the tuning fork is to verify that the
radar is ALREADY calibrated within acceptable parameters.  Most radars
go through a lifetime of service without falling out of calibration.  If
there is ever a calibration to be done, it's done by the manufacturer.

 By the time you
> get
> done with this you can ask How many cars where on the road at the time
> he
> got you with the radar and H he is positive it was you that the RADAR
> picked
> up?

All officers are trained to VISUALLY estimate the speed of the vehicle. 
The purpose of the radar is to confirm the speed of the particular
vehicle that the officer has already determined is speeding.  It is not
a guessing game to those officers who use radar in a professional
manner.  There is a minimum of 24 hours of training involved.

>    Maybe the fact that  my father works as an engineer at Boeing on
> AWAKS
> and is one of the top
> authorities in RADAR help out.  But he has never been convicted of
> speeding
> when caught by Radar and neither have I.

Your father's time will come, and so will yours.....

> 
> Randy Little                              Represented by:
> R.S.Little Studio                      Jim Zaccaro & Assoc.
> Photography & Digital Imaging    http://home.earthlink.net/~jim

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