French police recently started using road police radars (mounted to sea walls) on the Riviera to measure boat speeds. In the first week 74 boats were measured exceeding the speed limit, resulting in 19 fines and 28 warnings.

74 TOTAL speed violations
-- 19 Fines
-- 28 Warnings
-- 47 TOTAL Fines + Warnings
27 unaccounted speeding violations (74-47)

MARINE CONSIDERATIONS
Radars measuring boat speeds have different/additional considerations that effect accuracy and reliability.

• Radar should be operated from a fixed motionless position (shore).
-- Radars in a boat subject to boat motion (speed errors).
-- scanning error/hand held modulation potential problems.

• Boats are MUCH SMALLER Radar Targets than land vehicles.
-- marine radars will not have the same performance as land operation.

• Multi-path from moving water could effect measured speed accuracy (water/wave speed adds or subtracts from measured boat speed).

CopRadar

Dubai (UAE) police have acquired 34 radars for traffic speed enforcement due to an increase in accidents recently. Some of the radars are used in the airport tunnel road.

Police radars are designed to operate in an open area (free space). A radar will not function well in the confined space of a tunnel. Multipath (multi signal bounces) and radar receiver saturation (strong echo signals swamp the receiver) makes it difficult (at best) or impossible to get an accurate, let alone meaningful, speed reading.

CopRadar

While a Canadian politician's recent claim he was not speeding in the vicinity of a stationary emergency vehicle may very well be true, his reason is weak. He claims mirrors from the emergency vehicle may have affected the radar reading.

Stationary mirrors by themselves cannot effect a Doppler radar speed reading because the mirrors are not moving. The mirrors are merely just (more) reflective ground echoes. Doppler radar, by design, measures moving objects and ignores stationary echoes.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer that issued the citation stated he locked the politician's van speed (88 km/hr = 55 mph) when it was beside the police cruiser (range from radar is 0 or less -- negative range).

Vehicles beside a radar produce a speed reading of 0 (cosine effect and radar sample time limiting factors). Speed should be locked only when the target vehicle is in front of the radar (about 50 ft = 15 m or MORE depending on variables). It is possible the radar measured another vehicle in front of the radar and behind the politician's van.

CopRadar

Recently Austrian police tested a Porsche 911 modified with a police package. The test car is considered a major success (not a good idea to try and outrun this thing), and the police plan to purchase more Porsche patrol cars.

The Porsche 911 police patrol cars have a top speed of 177 mph (about 285 km/hr). The biggest problem with the Porsche is lack of space. Radios, a breathalyser, and of course a radar make the driver's position somewhat cramped.

Radar Detectors are illegal in some parts of Australia. Some police use Radar Detector Detectors (RDD's) to enforce the law where radar detectors are illegal. Installing an RDD into an already cramped Porsche makes a tight situation tighter.

CopRadar