Do officer drive around with Radar off?

**outrun** · 02-08-2005, 05:22 PM

This is a dumb question I think but starting to make me wonder. I live in a big suburb of Dallas TX. Here it seems that every squad I run into has radar however my radar never goes off. I went to the neighboring city and saw an officer shooting radar. (It appeard he was) He was in the parking lot facing oncoming traffic and not shooting laser. I past by him numerous times and then just sat in the adjacent parking lot and nothing. I don't get it. I ran across 3 other squads in the same city and nothing. So total today of all these officers I have come across none of them seem to be using radar or who knows? ( I just didn't get anything) My other question is if an officer is on a traffic stop and has the vehicle speed locked in will the radar stop transmitting? I have passed many DPS officers on traffic and as I come up on them I don't get anything. So, I am just assuming they have the violators speed locked and so I don't pick up anything.

Thanks, Jason

**sethy** · 02-08-2005, 05:51 PM

Just because they are driving aound does not mean they are running radar. That is true in a lot of big cities.

**marlinspike** · 02-08-2005, 06:16 PM

I'm pretty sure my Valentine works as specified since it has picked up cops and it picks up falses, and I've come across cops not running anything. Here's one way to test it. Turn off any filters and go in front of a store with automatic doors. BTW, what detector are you using?
Richard

**Surgeon** · 02-08-2005, 06:16 PM

What type of detector do you have?

**outrun** · 02-08-2005, 06:29 PM

I am using the RX 65. I have had the same trouble with the vector 895. I just can't imagine that many around and no radar on. DPS, Rowllett, Garland. Those are the cities that I knew had radar and nothing.

Jason

**marlinspike** · 02-08-2005, 06:32 PM

You know what you could try. If you see a cop who looks bored, just ask him to zap you.
Richard

**jimbonzzz** · 02-08-2005, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by Outrun

This is a dumb question I think but starting to make me wonder. I live in a big suburb of Dallas TX. Here it seems that every squad I run into has radar however my radar never goes off. I went to the neighboring city and saw an officer shooting radar. (It appeard he was) He was in the parking lot facing oncoming traffic and not shooting laser. I past by him numerous times and then just sat in the adjacent parking lot and nothing. I don't get it. I ran across 3 other squads in the same city and nothing. So total today of all these officers I have come across none of them seem to be using radar or who knows? ( I just didn't get anything)

Yeah, sometimes they're just not using it...

Originally Posted by Outrun

My other question is if an officer is on a traffic stop and has the vehicle speed locked in will the radar stop transmitting? I have passed many DPS officers on traffic and as I come up on them I don't get anything. So, I am just assuming they have the violators speed locked and so I don't pick up anything.

Not necessarily. I know on a lot of models, "speed lock" and "standby" are different functions assigned to different buttons. It is possible to have the speed locked while the radar is still transmitting, or they could put it into standby. Some models might automatically go into standby when a speed is locked, but I'm not sure. If so, I can say they're not all like that.

Jim

**outrun** · 02-08-2005, 06:52 PM

Yeah, I could ask but around here there is a saying in my city that says you don't mess around with Garland. I would have to try another city. Also I made a mistake in the other radar I metioned. The other radar that upgraded from was the vector 985 not 895.

Jason

**marlinspike** · 02-08-2005, 09:08 PM

Well, I saw one today that definitley turned his off after making stop. I was coming off an off ramp (it's an uphill that when you crest is flat at the top, i.e. it doesn't go back down) and as I'm about 2 seconds from cresting I get 5 bars of Ka (I have the increased sensitivity on), and when I crest I see across the street (on the on ramp to get back onto the highway), a cop has a Mitsu lancer pulled over and his car (and presumably his radar since this looked like an impromptu stop, i.e. not a trap) was pointing in the same direction I was, so that means his gun was directly away from me. I made a left turn since that's what I planned on doing, but then decided to do a U-turn and see what's what, but by the time I did that he had his radar off and a few seconds later got out of his car.
Richard

**Radar Roy** · 02-09-2005, 09:43 AM

Not all police cars have radar

Give you an example when I was LEO, The District that I worked had 15 patrol beats and only 1 radar gun.

I larger cities such as Dallas, they sometimes only have the traffic unit officers with the radar/laser guns.