Thursday, April 24, 2008

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about Radar and about how Radar Guns work. Below is a list of the most frequent questions we get by people hoping to get out of their speeding tickets. So, without further adieu, here are the most commons myths about radar, misconceptions about radar guns and the cops that wield them. If you have any radar gun myths you'd like to add to this list of Radar Detector Facts, feel free to post them in the comments.

Myth #1 - Radar doesn't work accurately in bad weather - Many people think that if it's raining, cloudy or cold that radar equipment won't work correctly. This is simply not true. Look at it this way. Air traffic controllers can still track airplanes in the sky when it's foggy or cloudy. The equipment a radar gun uses is substantially scaled down compared to an airport but the same principles of radar technology and the laws of physics still apply. Bad weather as an argument will not get you out of a speeding ticket. Besides, if the weather is bad, it might be a good idea to drive more carefully anyway.

Myth #2 - Radar Detectors will prevent me from getting a speeding ticket - A Radar detector does not make you bulletproof. Radar detectors are simply tools; tools that can be used correctly or incorrectly and can perform differently under different circumstances. There's a good chance it won't detect a cop on the prowl and there's an even better chance of it going off when there is no cop around at all. There are also new and changing radar technologies that your fancy radar detector may not be able to pick up.

Myth #3 - Cops can't hide when running Radar - Cops can park wherever they want to nail speeders. There is no law saying they can't hide when searching for speeders. Some people call this entrapment, but that defense won't get you very far in traffic court.

Myth #4 - The Officer has to show me the Radar readout if I ask - Cops don't have to do anything for you. They're the ones with the authority over you. If he refuses to show you the readout, you can't use that as a defense in court. The officer is not obligated to show you his equipment. The judge will always believe the cop's word over yours. Cops can even ticket you for speeding with a visual inspection without radar. You can tell when someone is going a 100 mph and cops are trained to pick it up, even if their radar equipment is off.

Myth #5 - Cops give more speeding tickets to red cars - Cops give tickets to speeders and don't discriminate on car color. This theory probably arises from the corollary that people who own red cars are more likely to speed and thus get nailed more often for speeding. There are no magic properties in red car paint that make them more targeted by radar guns.

Myth #6 - Why did I get a ticket, I was only going 5mph over? - Generally it's up to the cop and the jurisdiction he represents to decide how much speeding warrants a ticket. There are no laws that say this much over is or isn't speeding. Speeding is 1 mph over the posted limit, period. He has grounds to ticket you for going 1mph just as much as if you were going 50 mph over. "But judge, I was only going five miles over" will not make a good defense in court. Five miles over is five miles over.

Myth #7 - I only got a ticket because cops have a quota - This is a common myth about police departments. They don't set quotas for how many tickets a cop needs to write. Officers can write as little or as many tickets as they wish. You can't establish a quota based on who might break the law. That'd be like telling cops they have to solve 5 murders in the next month when murders may or may not even occur.

Myth #8 - I didn't sign the ticket so it's not valid and I don't have to show up in court because it will be dismissed - Signing the ticket is not an admission of guilt. It's usually an acknowledgement you have to appear in court. If you don't show up to court based on this logic, the judge will likely rule against you automatically, you'll be levied a fine in addition to the ticket and have a warrant issued for your arrest. Some states will even suspend your license.

Myth #9 - There's an error on my ticket so the judge will have to dismiss it - People make mistakes. The judge will not dismiss a speeding ticket if the cop got your eye color wrong on the ticket.

Myth #10 - If I place tinfoil on my car's hubcaps or hang a CD from my rear-view mirror, I will become invisible to police radar - This was the subject of a recent Mythbuster's episode. All these methods were proved to be ineffective. There's nothing you can put on your car that will prevent it from being detected by polic radar. Maybe if they started building cars out of the stuff they make stealth bombers out of...

Editor's Note: None of the above information should be considered legal advice.