Taking Aim at Speeders

This article appeared today in the Press Enterprise Newpaper in Southern Califorina, in which I was interviewed.

Technology allows CHP to pinpoint infractions
10:00 PM PST on Sunday, December 3, 2006

By JULIA GLICK – The Press-Enterprise

The California Highway Patrol has a new weapon against speeders in the Inland region: lasers. Officers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties started using laser speed measurement, called lidar, last month to clock drivers barreling down the area’s freeways, authorities said.

California Highway Patrol officers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties started using the lidar device last month.

Lidar makes it easier to zero in on individual vehicles and nearly impossible for drivers to contest tickets in court, officials said. And speeders beware: radar detectors won’t help you.

“The lidar is so quick that by the time your radar detector goes off, your speed has already been determined,” said Officer Mario Lopez with the Inland Division of the highway patrol.

The patrol is using about 10 lidar units in Riverside County and 17 in San Bernardino County to supplement officers’ traditional radar guns, authorities said.

After a successful pilot project in the Solano area of Northern California, the state purchased 240 laser units with federal grants in 2006 and distributed them among its eight highway patrol divisions, said spokesman Steve Kohler.

“When it comes to measuring distance and speed, lidar has really replaced radar,” said Dan Sise of Laser-Technology Inc., the Colorado-based manufacturer of the units. “It is the new technology.”

Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, enables an officer to aim at a particular vehicle, even a small motorcycle in heavy traffic, said Sise. The unit shoots out a laser beam and uses the time it takes for the light to bounce back to pinpoint the car’s distance. When the device measures the same distance a split-second later, it can determine how quickly the car has moved, he said.

Radar uses the reflection of radio waves to measure a car’s speed. Its main advantage over laser is that it can be mobile while a laser unit must be kept still in order to function, Sise said.

While laser beams are narrow and focused, traditional radar beams are wider and sometimes cover several vehicles, Sise said. Officers use their training and judgment to determine which car is giving off the fast-speed reading, he said.

“If you get a good lawyer, sometimes you can get out of a radar ticket,” Sise said. “But it is very hard to get out of a laser ticket, because it is so precise. It makes the judge’s job much easier.”

Lidar also foils radar detectors, the old-standby for avoiding a ticket. While a radar gun’s broad radio wave emissions can be picked up at a distance and give drivers a warning to slow down, the laser beams don’t trigger the radar detector until it is too late.

If a lidar unit sets off your detector, “Just pull over. You just got a ticket,” said Roy Reyer, owner of RadarBusters.com, which sells and reviews radar detectors.

But as quickly as new technology comes out, speeders find a way to beat it, said Reyer, a retired policeman from Arizona.

RadarBusters.com and other companies have begun selling laser jammers, also known as blinders, which sell for about $350. The jammers, mounted inside the car grill, flash a burst of invisible infrared light at the lidar gun and block a reading, Reyer said. That buys time to slow down and escape a ticket.

While radar detectors are not specifically illegal in California, laser jammers are outlawed, Reyer said.