Choosing The Right Radar Detector
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Page 7 - Laser EnforcementBig Difference There is a big difference between police radar and laser enforcement! Radar Enforcement Over 90% of the traffic enforcement devices used by police today are radar guns.
These radio waves can travel great distances and are very wide, making it easy for a good radar detector to pick-up stray signals, giving you plenty of advanced warning of the officer ahead. Radar guns can also be hand held or mounted to the patrol car and can be used while the officer is stationary or moving. Laser Enforcement These guns transmit a beam of infrared light at a frequency of 330 terahertz. This light beam is only 18 inches wide at 500 feet and gets smaller as you approach the officer. This narrow light beam is aimed by the officer to a reflective area on your vehicle, such as your headlamps or front license plate. The officer can only use the laser gun while he is stationary. Unless your radar detector is within this 18" circle, or it picks up "scatter" from the beam, your radar detector will never alert. And by chance it does, it is too late as the officer has already obtained your speed. The use of lidar varies from state to state. As an example police in Hawaii use laser exclusively. Florida and Ohio is split 50/50, with most local police departments using laser and highway patrol officers using radar. In Pennsylvania, police laser guns are not used at all. Laser Countermeasure Devices There are several products that are available that can protect you however against police laser. Veil Stealth Coating When police target your vehicle with a lidar gun, they normally target the front, and aim at either the headlights or license plate. During the Speed Measurement Laboratories Radar Detector Shoot Out, the Veil was found to reduce the range of a police laser gun as much as 70%. If your radar detector is mounted correctly so it does activate to a laser alert, the extra time it will take for a laser gun to acquire your speed with the Veil, may save yourself from a citation. Laser Jammers First off there are two basic types of laser jammers, active and passive. Passive Laser Jammers
These passive devices do not work, and I am so confident that they will fail in protecting you, that I offer a $50,000.00 reward to anyone that can show me a passive jammer that does work. Active Laser Jammers On the other hand, active laser jammers are very effective in jamming police laser. Once an active laser jammer senses the presence of a police lidar beam it activates and sends out its own light beam, overpowering the police laser gun. I explain the theory this way: "I shine a hundred candle power flashlight at you and you respond by shining a million candle power flashlight at me. Your more powerful flashlight washes out mine"
As police target either the headlamps and/or front license plate you should consider models that have two or more heads that would mount between your headlamps and the license plate. However, if you drive a smaller subcompact car, the Blinder M27 would be sufficient to protect the front portion of your car. If you wanted front and rear protection then you should consider the Blinder M47 and install two heads to the front and two head to the rear There are several active laser jammers on the market today and I recommend that you review my laser jammer testing reports so you can select the product best for you.
Laser Jammers are illegal in the states of Nebraska, Minnesota, Utah, California, Oklahoma, Virginia, Colorado, Illinois and Washington DC. In states where laser jammers are illegal, it would be advisable to power the units down after they go active and you have slowed down, to avoid suspicions from law enforcement. |
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Radar guns transmit a microwave radio signal that is sent out, reflected off a moving object such as a car, and bounced back to the radar gun where the radio waves are analyzed by computer and your speed is displayed to the officer.
A growing trend today are police departments moving to laser (lidar) enforcement and it is estimated that there are over 60,000 police laser guns in use today in the USA.
