Thursday, April 26, 2007

In front of the police headquarters in Old Saybrook, close by to the marked police SUV, and police lieutenant standing alongside the Main street, there were several cars speeding by.
The posted speed limit on Main Street is 25 miles per hour, though there were several vehicles cited by a radar gun going 42 miles per hour.

A radar gun is very helpful for police officers; they allow officers to target a specific vehicle, even one that is up to 1,000 feet away, which appears to be going over the speed limit. When the trigger is pulled, the gun emits an infrared light reflects off the vehicle and comes back to the gun counting the number of nanoseconds it took for the light to make that round trip.

As a rule, hand-held police radar guns measure the speed of a vehicle in a field area of approximately 400 feet.

In order to be determined that the vehicle was speeding, a police officer must use three ways: use his/her sight, sound which comes from an audible pitch noise based on the distance the vehicle is from the cruiser, and an actual readout display stating the driver's speed.