Police Forum - Radar Detectors

http://forums.officer.com/forums/sho...8&page=2&pp=25
Any thoughts?
They certainly like to bash the RD community.
Seems like they have the impression that everyone that has a RD is a habitual speeder, and therefore deserves a stiffer penalty. :roll: I myself used to speed alot but as I have grown older found out it is not worth the hiked insurance rates from speeding tickets. I merely have a RD as more of a hobby then a counter-measure for speeding.

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Originally Posted by saranac

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Originally Posted by Koolvk

Okay, here's my question? If a radar detector is legal, is it really "fair" to ticket the owners of them more aggressively. I understand the concept of officer discretion, but I personally have made habits of driving slower since buying a cheap radar detector, partially due to the false positives. Is it wrong just to want to know when you're being zapped, even when you're not speeding?

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If you make it to the academy, make sure you have your radar detector proudly displayed. Your academy instructors will be so impressed with it, they will make you wear it around your neck for the first week.
Every time an instructor gets close to you, you have to say beep beep just like your radar detector does. Cops dont use radar detectors.

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:roll:
I found this part funny thinking or Radar Roy AKA "Rabbit" :lol: :wink:

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Originally Posted by StealthyPhantom

Seems like they have the impression that everyone that has a RD is a habitual speeder, and therefore deserves a stiffer penalty. :roll:

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On open highways, yes, I'm guilty-as-charged. :oops:

And speaking only for myself, I honestly believe that as I play the game, I deserve to get punished by its rules. The two times that I've been caught speeding in the past 15+ years of driving were both times that I've been inattentive ("speeding stupid"), and I'd pulled-over even before the enforcer managed to put his cruiser's four wheels on the highway. I was thanked both times for my courtesy, and both times, I gladly paid the fine. I lost, fair and square - why shouldn't I be punished? :oops:

Local surface streets? I'll give a reach-around to the officer who clocks me doing one single MPH more than the PSL. :lol: I've got a good detector, I've got good laser countermeasures - but I don't speed locally.

I have a lot of friends and acquaintances in law-enforcement - because of the nature of their jobs, they can and do, many times, become rather cynical/insulated in their views, and I've found that it takes some convincing, usually from someone they know/trust, in order to convince them once again that their world-view shouldn't necessarily be so bleak.

I tend to think of this fault of theirs as not a character flaw, but rather, as a job hazard.

And besides, cut these hard-working men and women some slack. :) There's rarely an automotive-related Forum that I frequent which doesn't have at least a quarter of the members posting, consistently, "I hate (or worse) the police." :roll:

Sure, there's a$$holes and power-trippers out there, but the vast majority are fair, honest, hard-working citizens just like you and me, and just trying their best to do a very, very hard - and often thankless - job.

Cops don't use radar detectors because they don't need them! Cops don't get speeding tickets! Notice I didn't say that they don't speed. It's called "professional courtesy."

When we have underposted speed limits, and the cops are turned into tax collectors, you can expect there will be some animosity toward the police. And many cops will admit, off the record, that they have been turned into tax collectors. Most cops I know don't even like working traffic.

GTO_04

I must ask, as a retired LEO, that everyone please NOT judge all LEOs by the nitwits posting on that forum. For one thing, you have no way of knowing which are real LEOs and which are posers and wannabes. I never even knew about radar detectors until a fellow LEO showed me his Escort back in the old days when it had a needle gauge and just a yellow light for a warning. Yes, LEOs get professional courtesy, whether retired or active. But we also rarely need it. I've seen the end results of high speed crashes and that is enough to keep me at the PSL. Those LEOs who constantly speed and abuse professionsl courtesy...well...they are out there and they are an embarassment to the LEO community. I read that thread and was disgusted as I'm sure all of you were. IF those are LEOs, they are not ENFORCING the law, they are INTERPRETING it based on their own personal feelings and emotions. They are also ASSUMING. And that is a very stoopid thing to do. Everyone knows when you ASS U ME what can happen. :D
Again...please don't judge ALL LEOs by what is posted on that forum or other forums where they make nitwit statements like those.

Dep...retired Deputy Sheriff, Cook County, IL, 22 years

^ Well-said on all counts. :)

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Originally Posted by Deputy

For one thing, you have no way of knowing which are real LEOs and which are posers and wannabes.

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Very true. It's the "Errornet," after all! :lol:

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Those LEOs who constantly speed and abuse professionsl courtesy...well...they are out there and they are an embarassment to the LEO community. I read that thread and was disgusted as I'm sure all of you were. IF those are LEOs, they are not ENFORCING the law, they are INTERPRETING it based on their own personal feelings and emotions.

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Again, well-said.

Yes, as a physician family, we sometimes get "professional courtesy" from other physicians for their services, but it's a privilege that's all too easy to abuse, and one must constantly watch out for the moral and ethical pitfalls that comes with such privilege, and use it accordingly. I think that for law-enforcement/emergency personnel, such "speeding courtesy" should be given only in cases of true dire personal emergency (after all, who wouldn't appreciate some extra consideration from one's fellow brothers/sisters when something like that happens, right?) and/or the rare cases where the off-duty simply was truly unaware of their driving, and reverted back to "on-duty" behavior out of a moment's inattention.

Of-course, personal honor comes into play heavily at such times.

Well said, Deputy.

TSi+WRX: Thanx pal. You wouldn't believe how much threads and posts like the ones on that forum disgust me. Radar and lasers are not "toys" to be used by LEOs to mess with citizens, as some of the posts on that thread tend to indicate. If those are real LEOs, and I doubt most of them are, then one has to wonder what is happening to the law enforcement community when they take delight in zapping cars with radar detectors just to piss the drivers off. That's why I think the majority of them are just geeky teenagers who are nothing but "forum warriors". The ones that are actual LEOs and are posting that garbage...well...there are bad apples in every crate :wink:

Dep
P.S. Doctors also get professional courtesy from police :)

^ NP - please, think nothing of it - I have quite a number of friends and acquaintances in law-enforcement, so I am always inclined to help "defend" their honor and perhaps explain a little of where they may be coming from in terms of their sometimes seemingly calloused thinking. Definitely, of my friends in your field, no-one would fall to such behavior, and I'm sure that they'd be shocked, too.

Bad apples in every crate - ain't that the truth! :cry:

As for the "MD courtesy" from LEOs, yes, that's definitely the case, although between my wife and I, we only know of two instances where someone we know have used this courtesy pass.

One was an OB, who really needed to get to a suddenly complicated delivery. She was pulled-over, and ended up getting a full escort, with flashing lights and all, back to the hospital (and thankfully so, as the baby really needed her). The other was an emergency-department case, where again, the doctor was called unexpectedly.

There's always jokes floating around the locker rooms and call rooms about getting a police escort, but I think that truly, it is looked upon badly in the medical community for anyone to try to exploit this - which could really mean the difference between life-and-death. :)

I don't think that RD show intent to speed. I just think it makes me a better driver more aware of the road. Laser jammers on the other hand i think do show intent. You wouldn't spend 500 bucks unless you thought it would save you a ticket a few times.

carter: The thing is, as long as it's not against the law to use laser or radar detectors, there is no "intent" to show. Some folks just like to be informed of what's going on around them. If I get zapped by a laser (hasn't happened yet), that will definitely make me aware that I better stay at or below the speed limit. The posts on that police forum ASSUMED that just the PRESENCE of a laser or radar detector immediately meant the owner was going to try and break the law. My radar detectors, at least the RX65 and STi, both pick up road warnings and construction zones. That has NOTHING to do with speeding. And if I do pick up a radar signature, it could just as easily be detecting a squad car with a car pulled to the side of the road. That would warn me to slow down in advance of the squad and drive more safely while the officer is walking around on the edge of the road.
As to laser jammers...again...as long as they aren't against the law, the police have nothing to say about them. Or shouldn't.

Dep

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Originally Posted by Deputy

Again...please don't judge ALL LEOs by what is posted on that forum or other forums where they make nitwit statements like those.

Dep...retired Deputy Sheriff, Cook County, IL, 22 years

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Fair enough. You make a good point there.

GTO_04