Posted: 3/9/2003 8:53:31 AM EDT
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SITREP: Saturday afternoon. I'm by myself doing an indicated 45 mph in a 40 mph multi-lane residential broadway. About 300 yards ahead, I see 4-5 local LEOs standing in the grass off to the side of the street. All are wearing safety vests. All are facing in my direction and I reduce my speed to an indicated 40 mph. As I near, I can see one officer holding a device of some type. All officers' attention are focused on me. The officer that's holding the device is holding it up to his eye and pointing it at me. The appearance of the device is thin, maybe 3 inches across and tall, about a foot. The attention is directed at me until almost at the point I pass. As I pass they are turning away from me as a group and walking away. In my review mirror the seem to be inspecting something on the device. OTHER DETAILS: I use a radar detector, a Passport 8500. It was on and is functional. There was no alert from the detector during the entire "encounter". Weather was warm and sunny. Time was approximately 11:00 am. I was traveling eastbound. QUESTION: Does anyone know what kind of device was being used? |
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I' don't think it was a laser. My detector would have alerted. The device was shaped like a large coffee table book and was used as if it was standing upright and the officer was looking/aimimg through the "spine". It did [b]not[/b] look anything like the picture posted above. There was a marked unit and an unmarked unit parked on the side street near the officers but they were unmanned. I didn't see any chase vehicles further down. In fact, from that point the street is unbroken with intersections for the next 1-2 miles. When the officers turned away as I passed, they did it in a casual manner. |
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Laser! I get about one laser hit for every 10 I get on Ka band. The local police have a laser unit in one of their patrol cars. The motorcycle cops have a hunter-killer technique. One guy sets up about 10 feet from the corner while the other sits a city block down. Tag 'em and bag 'em. A girl at work got busted doing 65 in a 25 (school zone) in her new Toyota MR2. Wonder what the balistics on a 60 pound boy hit by a 2800 pound car speeding at 65 ... The minute I save by speeding to work though the neighborhoods is certainly worth the life of a child or a smashed car. [rolleyes] I rather have the cars racing by my house at 35 then the limit as that reduces the amount of time I have to listen to their music. Plus hitting a slower target with a wristrocket isn't as difficult or fun! I guess I got the need for speed out of me when I was 16 and drove like a fool ('73 'cuda) ... into a ladies car, into a guys car, and then another, and a tree, all in different accidents ... you can never trust the other idiot on the road. No matter how fast your car, how good your brakes, how quick your reactions there's the factor of the other idiot on the road that will kill you (or them) or bend your nose. |
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Quoted: So it didnt have any kind of handle? It was one solid piece? That's the way it appeared. It definitely extended above his head. They didn't appear to be running an operation. They were being very obvious. I got the impression they may have been testing a new device of some kind. Our local LEOs are known for testing new traffic enforcement techniques. I'm familiar with a lot of them. I've got a Sergeant that lives across the street from me. She frequently sets up operations for speeders in our neighborhood. She hides behind the brick walls that line the neighborhood and nails 'em with a K-band handheld and then steps out in the street and flags them down. (edited to correct a baseless supposition) |
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Quoted: I' don't think it was a laser. My detector would have alerted. The 'cone' of the light waves emitted from a LIDAR gun is much narrower than the radio waves from a RADAR gun. If you didn't get a LASER warning on your detector, it could be that you weren't targeted. /tinfoil hat - The local PD around me is testing EMP devices to disbabel the vehicles of cronic speeders and left lane hogs. Could be what you saw. -934 |
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Quoted: If you didn't get a LASER warning on your detector, it could be that you weren't targeted. I was clearly targeted. I was the only vehicle in their scope of view and I passed within 50ft of them. I'll lookup the IMS and EMP systems and see if I can match the device that I saw. |
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The laser gun the local police have been testing looks more like a Sten. It even has a folding wire stock on it. I've talked to a couple of officers that have attempted to use it, and they said the numbers the radar shows and the laser shows are always different. One of the guys participated in a large operation Friday morning. He said it's nice to be able to pick the higher number from two different displays [;D].z |
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Quoted: I've got a Sergeant that lives across the street from me. She frequently sets up operations for speeders in our neighborhood. She hides behind the brick walls that line the neighborhood and nails 'em with a K-band handheld and then steps out in the street and flags them down. (edited to correct a baseless supposition) |
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Run your hi-beams anytime you are in a potential laser enforcement area. It WILL increase your reaction period. SOP on the freeways in Texas. Had my first nighttime laser illumination last week. Instant the Valentine lit up the brights went on. Cop couldn't get a read on the Suburban till I was 150-200 yards from him. He was in my sights at a quarter mile. |
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Run your hi-beams anytime you are in a potential laser enforcement area. It WILL increase your reaction period. SOP on the freeways in Texas. Had my first nighttime laser illumination last week. Instant the Valentine lit up the brights went on. Cop couldn't get a read on the Suburban till I was 150-200 yards from him. He was in my sights at a quarter mile. |
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Quoted: I don't think your RADAR detector would have caught the LASER device. Completely different devices... PS That's funny as hell Spectre Well, I call it a RADAR detector but it has LASER detection also. [;D] It's Passport's top-of-the-line model and compares favorably with the Valentine 1, which some consider to be the best on the market. [:D] |