I was driving home from work today and a police cruiser coming towards me from the opposite direction in the other lane passes by then turns around and pulls me over for speeding.

He said the cars now have a moving radar where they can be driving past you and still clock your speed. The speed he said I was going was unfortunetly for me true but I thought the police cars had to be stopped in a fixed location to get an accurate speed reading.

Is this something where I am stuck or can I fight this in traffic court and if I can what is the best way to challenge a ticket?

This really sucked, I had the top down and it was the first nice day in a while.


Well, Happy Easter Everyone !

Mike


2004 Berlina Black S2000

2004 Obsidian Black Infiniti G35 Coupe 6MT
2001 Grand Prix White S2000 w/hardtop

 

i havent ever heard of some kinda moving radar mount or anything...

but it is possible for them to just pull out their gun and tag you, although, it is kinda hard. the cop car doesnt necessarily have to be chillin on the side (thats only if they are using laser).

it is also very hard for them to use the gun when they are directly beside you, that will usually give them innacurate readings. he prolly tagged you head on, or slightly from an angle, when passing in the other direction. my friend recently got pulled over going 95 in a 75 this way. there were two cops in the car, one taggin, and the other driving.

grab a V1...

 

The RCMP have been using it for years.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mikes_s2000
I was driving home from work today and a police cruiser coming towards me from the opposite direction in the other lane passes by then turns around and pulls me over for speeding.

 

Can good radar detectors (V1, Escort Passport, Beltronics Vector) pick up POP radar? I've heard this is a relatively new way of generating radar signals and conventional detectors can't scan for them. If not, can a flash upgrade (for detectors which have upgrade capability) fix this problem or is this just a hardware issue?

 

Here in washington state we have perponderance of evidence. This means a 49/51 win for the ticket to be yours. So if in court you suggest even a pinch of speeding you get the ticket. 90% of the time denying the whole affair saying it wasn't you and you looked at your speed when you saw the officer will usually get you oof. However if you say well maybe 31 in a 30 you get the ticket that easy. The ticket is written for speeding not the speed you were going. I have a 90% success rate at this point with tickets. Only one has been on my record in the last 10 years. Knock On wood.

 

Sorry about your ticket. I have been stopped twice with the troopers going in the opposite direction. Sucks doesn't it?

And you have 2 S2ks? Cool deal

Goodluck with it

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SiDriver
Can good radar detectors (V1, Escort Passport, Beltronics Vector) pick up POP radar?

 

Cops can nail you with an accurate radar reading while moving toward/away or stationary. The readings are actually more accurate if you are moving directly towards/away from the radar source. To my knowledge, vehicle speed is measured using radar technology that is based on the Doppler Effect. Basically, the Doppler Effect relates the relative velocities of two points and their source/observed frequencies or wavelengths. Ever notice how when a police or ambulance siren is approaching you location it seems like the frequency of the siren is increasing and how the frequency decreases as the siren moves away from you. This effect is known as the Doppler frequency/wavelength shift effect. There are simple mathematical equations which govern this behavior and this I assume is the theory behind radar detectors which detect vehicle speed. Basically, they create a source frequency by sending a radar wave (e.g. microwave) towards the reflective metal body of car and measure the frequency of the wave that has reflected off the body. Knowing their velocity, the source radar wave frequency, the reflected source radar wave frequency, they can calculate your vehicle velocity quite accurately best if you're moving directly toward or away from the radar detector. BTW, for those of you who are unfamiliar with wave characteristics (i.e. radar waves in this case) when I use "frequency/wavelength" they are basically two quantities which are the same because they are related to one another. For all electromagnetic waves such as radar waves (e.g. microwaves) the relationship between frequency and wavelength is that the product of wavelength and frequency is equal to the speed of light which is a constant (in each specific medium, air in our case). Therefore one can easily arrive at the frequency of an electromagnetic wave given the wavelength and vice verse. To put it short and sweet, YES, radar detectors can detect your speed while moving toward you. I suspect he got an accurate reading of your speed because you said you were moving directly toward him as he was coming in one lane and you were going in another.

 

Moving radar has been around for at least 20 years. As mentioned radar measures doppler. It will generate a speed that is the relative speed between the cars. From there the moving radar units know the speed of the police vehicle and calculate the correct speed of the target car. Handheld radar units can't be used while moving because they don't have a speed input from the police vehicle. Lasar because of its very focused beam also can't be used while the police car is moving. You don't mention if you were actually speeding or not. If you were speeding just pay the ticket or go to traffic school. Otherwise you are going to have to stand up in court and commit perjury to fight it.