Re: bmw-digest V9 #345

[John Fountaine <jfount@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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

CHP Has been using radar in CA for about 8 years now however, until
recently it could only be used on rural highways.  Within the past two
years, CHP has begun using radar on freeways, including highway 85 in the
Silicon Valley, and I 5.

>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.

All of the agencies I have worked for religiously send units out for
calibration and certification, just as they do the patrol cars.

>And if they try to pull that tuning fork crap then you ask when the tuning
>fork was
>last check for correct wavelength.  Tuning forks are also subject to
>variance in Temp and humidity.  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.

Tuning forks are not used to CALIBRATE a radar, but rather to check it.  If
there is a  deviance in indicated speed on the radar unit from what SHOULD
be indicated with a test fork, then the unit should not be used.  I know
that we always got a new fork with the return of the calibrated unit from
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?  None of this will work if you are going 40
>faster than everyone else.

and?  I am sure you know that the radar will pick up the target moving the
fastest.  This changes at great distances, especially when there are other
vehicles with considerably more mass, (ie I may not pick up a speeding
motorcyclye until it is much closer than the cars it is approaching with,
likewise I may not pick up a car at a great distance when it is surrounded
by 18 wheelers.

This, however is where training and experience comes into play.  Everyone
needs to understand, that radar is only used to confirm a visual speed
estimate made by an officer.  Not to say that this is the case in other
states, but this is how things work in California.  Personally, I would not
compromise my integrity for the sake of writting a speeding ticket, by
saying I made a visual speed estimate, if I had not.  But that is just me.
>
>   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.

With all due respect, that is kind of like saying a watchmaker can tell
better time than an "ordinary" person, because he or she knows how to build
the watch.  I figure that if radar is good enough to protect the good 'ol
USA, it is good enough to catch a speeding vehicle.
>
Then again, I am a simple guy...

John

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End of bmw-digest V9 #352
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