Busted with old Passport 8500 - what happened?

**justin81** · 01-02-2008, 05:26 PM

I have been an 8500 owner since early 2001 and have had no problems until the day before Thanksgiving this year when I was pulled over and issued a citation for speeding courtesy of the North Carolina Highway Patrol. The trooper said she was using radar, but my detector never went off prior to the stop. While she was in her car writing the ticket, the detector suddenly blurted out a full strength K band alert momentarily. I told the trooper that my detector didn't go off and her response was something along the lines of "I leave the radar off most of the time and turn it on only to clock speeders and some times their radar detectors don't go off". Okay, so I gather she was using instant on. Fair enough. But, are there situations where instant on will not set off a detector, or more specifically, will not set off a Passport 8500? Could she have been using POP?

I also wonder if there may have been something wrong with the detector itself. As I said, I bought it in 2001. It survived a car fire (long story) in 2002, and I sent it back to Escort after this because the "service required" indicator came on. I lost the original carrying case during the fire, so it has not been kept in the case since then. It has been dropped on a couple of occasions wen it fell off the windshield because of the suction cups. The last few months before this incident, it had been giving me laser falses like crazy - whenever I would step on the brakes, use the power door locks and windows, etc. The detector hasn't had the best life, so is it possible that internal damage could have affected it so it didn't detect the K band signal that day?

This whole thing has been kind of a bummer. On the upside, I did call Escort and exchange my old unit for the new 8500 X50. So far, so good with that. As for the ticket, I got an attorney and I think he just wants to plead guilty. It sucks, but I was speeding so I deserved it. I just wish my little buddy hadn't let me down.

Thanks,
Justin

**jdong** · 01-02-2008, 05:38 PM

Depends on how the officer was targeting. With regular Instant-On, you should've gotten an alert at the last second with no reaction time. However, if the cop was quick-triggering (shooting instant-on bursts for like under a second) it's likely your Passport wouldn't have gone off. Escorts are known for rejecting pulses under 1 sec or so to reduce the frequency of false alerts. It's a price you are paying for the silentness of the detector.

**amoney** · 01-02-2008, 06:38 PM

First, get another lawyer.

As far as your situation, sounds like the passport had some issues that effect performance.

I have to say pretty ballsy to tell a cop your detector did not alert, I bet that made her day.

**justin81** · 01-02-2008, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by amoney

First, get another lawyer.

As far as your situation, sounds like the passport had some issues that effect performance.

I have to say pretty ballsy to tell a cop your detector did not alert, I bet that made her day.

Well, for what it's worth, I didn't ask about the radar issue until after she gave me the citation. The question was out of curiosity. I wasn't trying to be a jerk. She knew I had a detector (I didn't take it down) and she was citing me so I figured, what the hell, go ahead and ask.

The attorney says that he can ask the court to lower the speed to a number where I won't get any points, and the fine will be reduced. I did discuss with him some of the issues I was curious about (the possibility of her using POP without getting a tracking history for example, that would invalidate the ticket) but he said it would be more expensive to contest the ticket in that fashion and that pleading no contest was my best option to not get points and pay a smaller fine. Like I said, I was guilty. I'll take my medicine.

**amoney** · 01-02-2008, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by justin81

Originally Posted by amoney

First, get another lawyer.

As far as your situation, sounds like the passport had some issues that effect performance.

I have to say pretty ballsy to tell a cop your detector did not alert, I bet that made her day.

Well, for what it's worth, I didn't ask about the radar issue until after she gave me the citation. The question was out of curiosity. I wasn't trying to be a jerk. She knew I had a detector (I didn't take it down) and she was citing me so I figured, what the hell, go ahead and ask.

The attorney says that he can ask the court to lower the speed to a number where I won't get any points, and the fine will be reduced. I did discuss with him some of the issues I was curious about (the possibility of her using POP without getting a tracking history for example, that would invalidate the ticket) but he said it would be more expensive to contest the ticket in that fashion and that pleading no contest was my best option to not get points and pay a smaller fine. Like I said, I was guilty. I'll take my medicine.

I did read it as you said that after the fact, I understood why, I guess I would have crawled into my shell, lol.

Ah as far as the lawyer advice, I read your post indicating you pleading guilty, but now you said no contest, that is different and is the safe way to go!

:wink:

**justin81** · 01-02-2008, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by amoney

I did read it as you said that after the fact, I understood why, I guess I would have crawled into my shell, lol.

LOL. I think I was more confused by the whole experience. The cops around here like to use a lot of "dummy" cars (marked cars parked along the shoulder or in ditches with no one inside) and when I passed her car, I assumed it to be a dummy because my RD didn't go off. Next thing I know, she's pulling out of the ditch and the disco lights came on. I figured she had seen the RD on the windshield, as it wasn't concealed in any major way, so I thought it would look worse if I tried to hide it. She didn't say a word about it until I asked about the radar after she gave me the ticket. The last time I was stopped was in 2000. I didn't have a detector then, but I had a conversation with the cop about radar and he was explaining the new Stalker superwide KA band units the department had just gotten in. I remember him saying that he thought detectors were a waste of money, whereas I was thinking that I should be investing in one.

Originally Posted by amoney

Ah as far as the lawyer advice, I read your post indicating you pleading guilty, but now you said no contest, that is different and is the safe way to go!

Yeah, sorry. The plea would be "no contest" - still guilty in the eyes of the court though.

**justin81** · 01-02-2008, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by jdong

Depends on how the officer was targeting. With regular Instant-On, you should've gotten an alert at the last second with no reaction time. However, if the cop was quick-triggering (shooting instant-on bursts for like under a second) it's likely your Passport wouldn't have gone off. Escorts are known for rejecting pulses under 1 sec or so to reduce the frequency of false alerts. It's a price you are paying for the silentness of the detector.

What are the legalities of this "quick triggering"? I would assume that it doesn't provide a tracking history?

Not that it means much in court since the judge is just going to take the officer's word, but in a legal sense, can such a reading stand assuming there is no tracking history?

**kensteele** · 01-02-2008, 10:04 PM

get a v1. i've have both over the years, i have had trouble with older escorts/passports detecting some radar. seems the newer stuff is better (x50, 9500i) but i've been thru my fair share of older models and i didn't trust tehm for the very reason you mentioned....failure to detect radar on some occasions. returned a lot of detectors during the trial.

**focalcivic** · 01-03-2008, 07:57 AM

Originally Posted by kensteele

get a v1. i've have both over the years, i have had trouble with older escorts/passports detecting some radar. seems the newer stuff is better (x50, 9500i) but i've been thru my fair share of older models and i didn't trust tehm for the very reason you mentioned....failure to detect radar on some occasions. returned a lot of detectors during the trial.

You also have to remember back in 2001, I don't think Bel and Escort merged yet, so you did not get the best of both worlds in terms of performance, like the newer models. I am not sure what platform the original 8500 was either, I still wonder who's platform was the S7? Bel or Escorts?