History of Radar Detectors

Radar Protection, The advances in radar, laser and car condom technology

Ever since the first municipality figured out there was money passing by on the streets, cops have been issuing tickets. Today it is a 15 billion dollar a year industry and supplements the revenue of many municipalities.

Radar for cops came on the seen shortly after the second world war and some of the early anti radar devices were "radar reflectors". As a kid in Montreal I remember my uncle brag about the reflectors he put on his 1952 Studebaker.  He still got tickets. A big shock came when in 1968 my mother got a speeding ticket through the mail. Sure enough along with the ticket was a picture of my mothers VW, her license plate and her speed. We were losing the battle.

In the 60's and early 70's airborne speed detection became popular. A aircraft or helicopter would time your travel between points on the road then radio ahead to a nice friendly waiting cop car. This has been abandoned in most areas because the use of the aircraft just is not cost effective for ticket revenue generation.

Some simpler methods were developed such as VASCAR. Simply a timing device measuring your time between two points and operated by a cop on the ground.

Pacing has been around sine the advent of the speedometer and still used today. The only defense is looking in your rear view mirror more often. To defeat that unmarked patrol cars were invented.

Before Radar detectors, books were available through mail-order teaching defensive ticket free driving. Most of the advice from those books still applies today. When the first radar detectors came along a huge sigh of relief went up from the multitude only to be let down by the fact that they were very unreliable. As they grew more sophisticated the police improved their radar technology as well. POP and instant on radar became the scourge of the masses.

But Radar had one shortcoming, it couldn't tell the officer which car was speeding. Where there was a lot of traffic it was almost useless. Along came laser speed measuring devices. They could target an individual car but the reliability of the speed they indicated was in question. Hitting a car at 1/4 mile with a 1/10 inch wide beam is harder then you think. The beam actually wanders all over the car because the operators hands are not that steady and the car is in motion. The license plate is targeted because it is the only assured flat piece on a modern car.  Often inaccurate reading occur when other places on the car are hit when the trigger is pulled. This problem has prevented laser radar from receiving judicial notice in over 95 percent of jurisdictions in the USA. Municipalities have ignored this and unless someone brings it up during trial are just as happy to convict you on laser evidence as they are on radar evidence. The advantage for the laser is that it can pick out individual cars when they are all packed together.

Smart people soon figured out that a plastic cover where the plastic has been strategically grooved will foil the radar gun sometimes. Others not so smart figured out that spraying the license plate with hairspray does the same thing. Cops have figured out that if someone has a plastic plate over their license that that person is in serious need of a stiff fine for speeding. They will lie in court to make certain that the speeding charge sticks. They have no way of telling if your plate is coated with hairspray though. It works but not that well. If the cop doesn't get a good reading on the license he will try other parts of the car. Some cars have such a shape that there is no way that they can get a reading.    Link to major court decision for laser

In Europe they are more advanced then we are. They have literally thousands of remote sites where hidden camera's coupled with radar or lasers guns that  take your speed and snap a picture of you, your car, your license, vola, instant ticket. Some places here are starting to catch on and don't be surprised if someday your get a nice, fat, spicy ticket from some municipality.

Today speeding tickets is big business. Like all big business cost cutting is the word. Cops cost money, remote self operating speeding boxes are more efficient, aren't represented by a union and don't need vacations. Squad cars double as moving radar devices where if a speeder is detected, the officer issues a ticket before heading to his favorite donut place. Speed traps have become production line ticket issuing establishments. To pace a car today takes to much time and effort, radar, and laser have become the corporate choice. You and your wallet is the target.

Today a laser detector only detects laser when you are targeted and by the time it goes off, it's to late. Pop Radar and instant on radar can be detected when another car is targeted and if there is sufficient scatter for your radar detector to receive it. Otherwise like laser, when your detector goes off, it's to late. What was needed was a device that gave you time, precious time to slow down once you were targeted. That device is available here from your fellow road warrior, Radar Rob.

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