Police Laser Detectors

Varnakov222

Newly Enlightened
Joined
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Location
Charleston, South Carolina
How do police laser detectors work?

If the indicator on your device pops up "laser", that means that the police have caught you if you are speeding, right?

I hope I am wrong.

The question is how does a laser detection feature on your device provide you with any advance warning of police nearby using a laser to catch speeders like it does with radar and X ray?

If it does not, what is the point of having this feature on any device in the first place?
 
The only way to beat a laser is if you are in a group of cars and the cop targets someone in front of you.
If you are all alone or in front of a group of cars, you will get a ticket, which has happened to me.
 
If the car in front of you with a laser detection device is tagged with a laser, will your laser detector pick it up too?

If not, I suppose a laser detector could serve as indirect warning, but it's not yours, it belongs to a car in front of you!

This indirect warning is when the cars in front of you suddenly drop their speed to the posted limit.

And of course, you have to slow down as well, and if you are tagged with the laser, you're going the speed limit, no problem.

And if the reason for this sudden drop in speed is not coroberated with K, Ka, or X ray, you then know it has to be a laser that is being used by the police on this stretch of road up ahead.

So in effect, you answered my question.

Thanks!

Now let's talk about laser and radar jammers.

My Uniden is only a receiver, K, Ka, Xray, and laser.

Are there detection devices that have both receiving and Jamming capability?

I bet they cost a fortune.

Or, are jamming devices sold seperately?

I haven't checked the prices on these, but I am sure they are also expensive.

I know alot more about receiving than I know about jamming.

So, how does jamming work?
 
Oops! Sorry, I thought they were only illegal in the commonwealth state of Virginia.
I haven't researched the subject lately, but IIRC, my impression from the last time I researched the matter they were illegal I think all the USA. The FCC regulates radio emissions, and I'm fairly certain that they would not permit RADAR jamming, and likely also LIDAR jamming. I'm fairly certain that you can find jammers for sale, as someone will always cater to fill a black market, just like there are export CB radios and linear amplifiers sold in the USA. I recommend that you avoid illegal and gray area activities, being a test case in court usually is expensive, and not worth the trouble, in my opinion. But, I guess the question you have to ask yourself is "do you feel lucky?" :)
 
Radar/laser detectors only work if the cops device is on. Sounds stupid, but what the cops do is wait for you to come into sight then they flip it on. You get no warning. When you're detector goes off you have already been caught.
 
Actually, there is a way to protect yourself from police speed lasers, and it has nothing to do with electronics.

First, a police laser gun only works when it is pointed at the headlights, backlights, and liscence plates.

This allows the laser to track back to the police laser gun takeing the exact path it took from the gun to the car.

It's a relatively cheap form of clear paint that goes over the head and rear lights.

This disrupts the return direction of the laser so no speed can be recorded on the laser gun.

There are also clear colored liscence plate covers that are actually a little translucent.

This translucent or textured characteristic of the license plate cover also disrupts the return path of the laser to the speed gun.

These license plate covers can also make red light cameras unable to photograph the license plate itself.

Not sure if these things are legal in all 50 states, though.
 
Actually, there is a way to protect yourself from police speed lasers, and it has nothing to do with electronics.

First, a police laser gun only works when it is pointed at the headlights, backlights, and liscence plates.

This allows the laser to track back to the police laser gun takeing the exact path it took from the gun to the car.

It's a relatively cheap form of clear paint that goes over the head and rear lights.

This disrupts the return direction of the laser so no speed can be recorded on the laser gun.

There are also clear colored liscence plate covers that are actually a little translucent.

This translucent or textured characteristic of the license plate cover also disrupts the return path of the laser to the speed gun.

These license plate covers can also make red light cameras unable to photograph the license plate itself.

Not sure if these things are legal in all 50 states, though.
This sounds familiar. When I researched this a few years ago, I remember a website that sold that stuff. Doing an internet search could likely find it again. I'll take a look and see what I can find.
 
Honestly I drive like an 80 year old woman so I guess I don't have the problems you guys have😁
 
Honestly I drive like an 80 year old woman so I guess I don't have the problems you guys have😁
Ha, if you ever rode with my 86 year old mother in law you'd likely kiss the ground when you finally arrive at your destination. She's a big believer in "aint got much time left, so why waste it driving slow?" But I know what you mean. I'm the guy most people are passing.
 
Actually, there is a way to protect yourself from police speed lasers, and it has nothing to do with electronics.

First, a police laser gun only works when it is pointed at the headlights, backlights, and liscence plates.

This allows the laser to track back to the police laser gun takeing the exact path it took from the gun to the car.

It's a relatively cheap form of clear paint that goes over the head and rear lights.

This disrupts the return direction of the laser so no speed can be recorded on the laser gun.

There are also clear colored liscence plate covers that are actually a little translucent.

This translucent or textured characteristic of the license plate cover also disrupts the return path of the laser to the speed gun.

These license plate covers can also make red light cameras unable to photograph the license plate itself.

Not sure if these things are legal in all 50 states, though.
While the license plate is the area you'd normally aim at, a Lidar will also work off your bonnet, bumper and other places. Smearing something over certain small parts of your vehicle won't guarantee you won't get caught. I'm dubious when it comes to the effectiveness of these coatings, anybody got some first-hand info?
 
I've come to the realization that there has never been a day in my life of being better off that day for having pushed the speed envelope the day before. Zero reward that lasts into the next day. In my mind that somehow that puts the risk / reward calculous in a proper perspective.
 
Actually, there is a way to protect yourself from police speed lasers, and it has nothing to do with electronics.

First, a police laser gun only works when it is pointed at the headlights, backlights, and liscence plates.

This allows the laser to track back to the police laser gun takeing the exact path it took from the gun to the car.

It's a relatively cheap form of clear paint that goes over the head and rear lights.

This disrupts the return direction of the laser so no speed can be recorded on the laser gun.

There are also clear colored liscence plate covers that are actually a little translucent.

This translucent or textured characteristic of the license plate cover also disrupts the return path of the laser to the speed gun.

These license plate covers can also make red light cameras unable to photograph the license plate itself.

Not sure if these things are legal in all 50 states, though.
Pretty much all of it is wrong, the post is full of urban legends, not facts. Cops do not target license plates or headlights, they points at any spot of a moving vehicle, they target you hundreds of feet away. license plate covers do not help against a laser whatsoever, cuz laser is shot at the front of the car, half the states do not even have front plates. covers only give cops a reason to pull you over even if you did nothing wrong on the road. a ticket for a red light camera is 55-100 bucks, a ticket for intentionality obstructed license plate is up to 600, also depending on a cop you may be arrested for that too. depending on your behavior.

To answer OP question, if a laser hits you, it is too late for a warning, until a cop shots a laser at you there is no warning. They use IR laser, it can be jammed by a special jammer, I'm pretty sure they are illegal in all 50 states. When you jam a police laser it will return an error, but it wont tell that jammer is used, it could be due to bad aim as well, but I have little doubt if a cop has you clearly in his laser view and an error comes back, he is going after you anyway.

It is a lot easier and cheaper to beat a speeding ticket in court than an obstruction charge which they will slap you with if you get caught with a jammer.

The best way to get out of a ticket is to have another cop's pba/sba, lt.... card, cops give them to their close friends and a family members, 99.9% chance after showing the card, a cop will let off, unless you did something really bad, or that cop is a real a$$. I have seen cops come and confront other officers who gave a ticket over their pba card. they really do not like it, not without a phone call to a number written on the back of the card, next to your name, so do not try to use someone elses' card they do not like it even more,
 
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Pretty much all of it is wrong, the post is full of urban legends, not facts. Cops do not target license plates or headlights, they points at any spot of a moving vehicle, they target you hundreds of feet away. license plate covers do not help against a laser whatsoever, cuz laser is shot at the front of the car, half the states do not even have front plates. covers only give cops a reason to pull you over even if you did nothing wrong on the road. a ticket for a red light camera is 55-100 bucks, a ticket for intentionality obstructed license plate is up to 600, also depending on a cop you may be arrested for that too. depending on your behavior.

To answer OP question, if a laser hits you, it is too late for a warning, until a cop shots a laser at you there is no warning. They use IR laser, it can be jammed by a special jammer, I'm pretty sure they are illegal in all 50 states. When you jam a police laser it will return an error, but it wont tell that jammer is used, it could be due to bad aim as well, but I have little doubt if a cop has you clearly in his laser view and an error comes back, he is going after you anyway.

It is a lot easier and cheaper to beat a speeding ticket in court than an obstruction charge which they will slap you with if you get caught with a jammer.

The best way to get out of a ticket is to have another cop's pba/sba, lt.... card, cops give them to their close friends and a family members, 99.9% chance after showing the card, a cop will let off, unless you did something really bad, or that cop is a real a$$. I have seen cops come and confront other officers who gave a ticket over their pba card. they really do not like it, not without a phone call to a number written on the back of the card, next to your name, so do not try to use someone elses' card they do not like it even more,
You make an interesting point about intentionally obstructing a liscence plate, and the consequences.

But the question is, who's eyes are being effected by this?

Now the liscence plate covers that I am describing in no way obstruct a police officer's view of any licence plate on a car that he is either following, or that the officer has pulled over.

As a matter of fact, there isn't a whole lot of visual evidence that a police officer can obtain once he stops and approaches the driver side of a vehicle.

The licence plate cover is clear, but the translucent texture is hard to see with the naked eye, and at certain angles in certain lighting, it is impossible to see.

The only eyes that are effected here is the eye of a red light camera.

I know you are not suppose to believe everything you see, but I have seen demonstrations of how these license plates covers work to throw off red light cameras.

I think an investigative reporter for one of the major networks was doing a story on this some time ago.

So one could argue legally that obstructing a licence plate only applies to human eyes who are looking directly at a plate in real time.

This would not include an AI camera snapping photographs, that a few days later are simply put into an envelope from some anonymous employee at the highway department, which is then mailed to the perp.

This legal argument would classify these licence plate covers as legal via loophole.


To your point about where a laser can make contact with a car, and still record a speed limit:

I figured that headlights, taillights, and licence plates would be the primary target of a police laser gun, because they are simply more reflective, and relatively flat which insures that a laser's round trip takes the exact same path, to and from, which must happen in order to record a vehicle's speed.

It seems that if a laser hits a curved part of a vehicle, or any other part that is not flat, that it would redirect the laser back on a different course than it took on the way to the vehicle.

If this happens, a speed cannot be recorded.
 

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