best bang for the buck is the Whistler PRO-73 Radar/Laser Detector.
$116 at buyeretail.com

Do a search here. There is a good article about the top three for <$200 and >$200.

 

Tickets are not the be-all, end-all of my job. For some reason some people see Trooper and think all we do every day is run radar. Like I said before... there are plenty of people out there with poor attitudes so I come in with plenty of tickets each month, but even if everyone I talked to that month was respectful so I didn't write any tickets... I'd still get a 'good guy' letter from the Zone Commander each month becuase I grab drunks and drugs all the time (what I'm really out on the road for... I don't care about people who speed... I just want to talk to as many people each shift as I can becuase it's a game of numbers... stop enough people... I'm gonna find something) plus I will never not answer up for a criminal complaint on my post.

How exactly did your parents earn your respect? Did they just let you do what you wanted when you were a kid? Or did they impose a set of rules and when you broke those rules they imposed some type of punishment... doing so in a fair and impartial manner? I know I lived by a fair set of rules and when I broke them I got lumped up a little because I deserved it. If you really want to believe I have to earn your respect... I earned it the day I raised my hand and swore an oath to protect peoples rights and dignity. I don't remember anywhere saying that I had to serve you. People who think that LE is there to serve them in the way you are speaking... are sorely mistaken. I am "serving" the law obiding citizens by enforcing the laws of society. I'm not here to say please don't speed... you might wrech your car. I'm here to stop you from speeding so you don't T-bone a minivan full of kids when you try to make it through the "yellow" light. Society has rules that we as a whole have adopted... I am here to try to ensure people obide by those rules and if they don't... I make every human effort to ensure they are penalized for it.

BTW... I don't stand in traffic to write.. I sit in my car... which is protecting your car... because when I have you stopped, your safety is my responsibility. Trooper Ambrose was 'cleaning up' an accident and a speeding moron lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the back of the troop car trapping, a still very alive and conscious Trooper, in his car while he burned to death. Thankfully the POS that was suspended and drunk, aslo died.
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Trooper....I'm not here to debate your worthiness as a servant (and yes, in my 'burg, they still have "to protect and to serve" quotes on their vehicles) of the general public. Bottom line.....if the citizens of any community vote for a budget cut, your employment BY THE CITIZENRY is at risk. As long as the public is footing the bill, then yes, you are a PUBLIC SERVANT.

Further, I applaud your efforts to take the drunks and druggies out of their cars, off the streets and away from our kids. For that, I personally thank you.

But, it's a bit like shooting fish in a barrel when I see the police cars, at night, lights off, lurking behind trees, signs, etc trying to catch speeders. You've got your methods (radar guns).....I've got mine (radar detector) to thwart what amounts to a money generation scheme...little more. I still say that if you stay in plain sight, lights on, that you will have more effect to get many more motorists to slow down than if you "lurk", unseen trying to get that one "big bust".

Regarding your "numbers game" to catch those who may be guilty of a more serious infraction, I think you may be bending the constitution a bit. Why not stop every car to catch someone (as some municipal police depts do when setting up road blocks)? You can stop any car you want as I'm sure you can find any of a number of innane infractions to charge them with. That's pushing the envelope by stating it's a numbers game, however. The more citizens you detain, the more likely you are going to find someone doing something wrong? Gee, didn't we fight/ haven't we fought wars to keep that from happening?

For the record, my parents earned my respect by bringing me into this world, feeding me, clothing me and giving me a moral compass to live by. I earned their respect by doing well in school, being a "good son" and by being successful in my life.

If I don't know a person, I'm cordial to them (at least until I've been given reason to respect them...and no, a uniform doesn't get an automatic pass in the respect dept).

 

Very well said, graphicguy

 

Amen.

 

hmmm ... I hopped in on something a little too late didn't I?? Seems like a little off topic. :scratch:

Matt

 

Ok, I know this is off topic of radar detectors sort of. Here is what happened to me 3-4 years ago.

I was driving my '78 Mustang II Ghia on I-55 by Springfield, Illinois in evening rush hour traffic and was moving along with the traffic. I actually was not watching my speedometer because the traffic was too heavy and I felt I needed to keep an eye on the road and traffic and not constantly watch my speedometer. I got in the left lane behind other people going faster than me (it was a 65 zone and I was going 70 - I checked after I changed lanes). I was approaching my exit, signaled, and got back in the right lane so I could exit. An Illinois State Trooper got behind me, tail gated me, turned on the lights. I pulled over -- way off the road and when the officer came up, he approached me on the passenger side of the car. Now mind you, '78's didn't have power windows back then. So, I had to lean all the way over across the passegner seat to manually roll down the window. I opened the door, and much to my surprise, the officer crawled halfway into my passenger side of the car. He said I was going 72 in a 65, I didn't signal when changing lanes, and I didn't have a seat belt on. I know I had on my signal I always use my signal. There is no shoulder harness on the driver's side, only a lap belt, which I showed him I still had on and buckled (can't get a shoulder harness in because apparently in the car's 1st year it had the interior panel replaced with the wrong panel so the '78 shoulder harness doesn't hook in at all -- it doesn't match up). My radar detector was still plugged in and still on and it never once went off. He took my license, registration and proof of insurance, ran the check, then came back and gave me a written warning for which I was grateful he didn't give me an actual ticket. Funny how he wrote that the warning was for a 72 in a 65, no signal, and he checked that the speed was verified by radar. Now I'm sorry, but I've passed officers pulled over with a motorist and my radar detector continues to go off even if the officer is stopped. So what was the deal with this?? If he had given me an actual ticket, I would have most likely fought it. And what was the deal with crawling halfway in my car, and for making me lean all the way over to unlock and open the door? He actually scared me!

The second scenario happened in my '05 at the end of November. I was rear-ended by a GMC Sierra pick-up truck. Called the Sheriff's Dept. They came out, looked at my car, went ahead and wrote a report, but didn't issue a ticket to the other driver. I was at a complete stop behind 2 other vehicles at a stop sign. The other driver hit me so hard, it dislodged my coffee mug out of the center console cup holder, to the passenger floorboard's firewall, and dislodged 2 70# sand tubes 12" in my trunk. The GMC had pieces of his front bumper strip laying on the ground before and after we left. I ended up 2 days afterward with shooting pains up and down my right leg which (long story short), ended up being herniated discs that required surgery (I just had the surgery last Friday and am now recurperating). I spoke to the officer's commander and emailed back and forth with the Sheriff. It came down to this -- in McLean County, it is at the officer's discretion whether to issue tickets if there are no injuries or damage. WHAT!!!!???? The car sustained over $700 damage to it and as for me, well the medical bills are still mounting. If officer's can go back and issue warrants and tickets at a later date, then why can't they go back and give this guy a ticket? The report does state that the guy rear-ended me.

Someone please tell me what is going on and how I can resolve this! Thanks.

 

Looked up respect on line, it's a hoot! Clearly graiphicguy has no respect for anyone.

Check out TRANSITIVE VERB: # 2

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dicti...try?id=r0180400

graiphguy your fortune cookie: Man with out respect of others is without respect.

 

I was asking if anyone had first hand knowledge of the K40 radar system. I called a local dealer for pricing. The radar detector with the laser defuser has to be installed professionally. Price installed is $1400. Talk about a blow to the wallet.

 

Dang, might as well get invisible paint if you're going to pay that much!

 

Who said I don't respect anyone? I most certainly do respect others that have earned it.

As I mentioned before, I DON'T have any respect for the speed limit because it has more relevance as a revenue generation scheme than it does as a "safety" concern.

 

graphicguy,

I did not mean to offend, but did you read the link? I thought it was funny, according to the dictionary and your love of speed.... never mind, did anyone else think the link was funny in relation to the topic?

Technically you don’t respect “anyone� you wait until they earn it they are a “someone�. I believe, everyone should respect everyone and everything until something happens to lose that respect, makes for a lot happier life.

Example: Two men you don’t know are walking in the parking lot on different days you don’t respect either of them, one of them keys your Mustang, and you still don’t have respect for either of them. Is that fair?



Who said I don't respect anyone? I most certainly do respect others that have earned it.

As I mentioned before, I DON'T have any respect for the speed limit because it has more relevance as a revenue generation scheme than it does as a "safety" concern.
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Yes traffic tickets generate revenue (would you rather be thrown in jail for 7 days for speeding or pay a fine?) but until you have been through some accident investigation course... may I suggest that you not be so confident about the correlation between speedlimits and safety concerns. Prime example is a fatal I went to a few weeks ago. 02 Camaro, driver lives (but in a coma so far) but has no legs, passenger dies from massive trauma.... his body was just a pile of pulp when it was removed from the car. Reason for the accident... speed... Nothing else. Accident reconstruction put the vehicle between 78 and 92 (comming into a 45 from a 55) I believe was the final calculation (big window due to road conditions changing rapidly at time of accident.) Camaro sheered into 2 pieces just behind the firewall when it hit a tree after the driver swerved for some unknown reason (lots of deer in that area).

I don't remember specific ratios but I believe what they told us was you are 10X more likely to suffer life threatening injuried in an accident at 70 than you are at 55.


BTW... I got another V1 yesterday... the woman said it was the biggest waste of money she has ever spent... 2 tickets in the month since she bought it.

 

Trooper4985,

Your example aside, speed STILL isn't the leading cause of accidents. And police officers spend FAR more time enforcing speed limits than they do enforcing the things that CAUSE accidents (but yes, there are a few times when speed is the whole cause, but that is pretty rare).

Personally, I would be VERY leary of "what the told us". I attended traffic school about 4 years ago and the officer teaching the class went through some of "those" numbers. The problem is, they are blattantly WRONG. I'm a process engineer. Most of my job can be described as "applied statistics". It is VERY easy for me to review stats and BS in them (you would not BELIEVE how many people try to bring white papers through with data that is almost complete forgeries!) The numbers they were tossing around in that class were so obviously BS I almost cried. Instead, I asked a few questions that very quickly pointed out just how wrong those numbers were. So be careful taking "their" numbers at face value, and I'll be careful where I speed.

 

MustangDan....no offense taken. I did find the link somewhat humorous (in a "reader's digest humorous anecdotes" kind of way). I think perhaps I've given the impression that since I expect respect to be earned, that makes me disrespectful to those that haven't earned it. That's not the case. I'm cordial to those that have yet to earn respect (that includes you Trooper).

While there is no doubt in my mind that someone travelling at a high rate of speed (in your example, traveling at 92 MPH in a 45 MPH zone) can cause someone to lose control of their vehicle. They should be stopped and ticketed because they have no business behind the wheel.

Stopping someone who is driving on a highway built to safely allow 75 MPH travel (as most interstates are designed to do) and then slapping a 55-60-65 MPH speed limit on them, is another excersise in revenue generation.

Throw the populace in jail for going 10-15-20 MPH over the speed limit? Try that a few times and watch the public outcry transpire and politicians lose re-election campaigns as a result. You seem to believe the constitution, that governs this country, doesn't apply to you. Wouldn't it be considered an offense against "unusual/cruel punishment" to throw someone in jail for doing 65MPH in a 55MPH posted zone?

I may be wrong, but why does it seem you are more intent on racking up your "ticket count" than really protecting the public? No wonder the public thinks you guys have ticket quotas.

Plus, as RRROAMER said, statistics are sometimes given a "basis in fact", when in truth, they aren't fact at all.

I stick by my statement that, in all but the most blatant cases, there is no corelation between speed limits and safety issues. Further, if you took the "fines" and "financial penalty" assessments from insurance companies out of speeding violations, that there would be little to no policing of speed limits. Lose the financial gain and police can focus more of their energies where they would be of better use to the public.

BTW....the lady you caught with the V1 must have been dumber than a box of rocks to have gotten 2 speeding tickets within a month of buying it.

Too bad we can't legislate fines for stupidity....LOL!!!!

 

Do you want to get speed limits set to REASONABLE speeds instead of revenue generation? We need to pass a Federal law that does three things: 1) It bans ANY Federal agency (court, Congress, Presidental order, Federal agency,etc.) from having ANYTHING to do with setting speed limits or fines imposed for speeding. Only the State governments would have that power. And 2) ALL the revenue from ANY traffic violation would go directly to the FEDERAL general treasury. Absolutely no "fees" or "court costs" or "enforcement recovery fees" or any other crap like that would be allowed. At all. Finall, 3) The Federal government would not be able to set highway funds (sent back to the states) based on traffic revenue or any other speed or revenue criteria.

That would force a hard seperation between the people that enforce the law, set the speed limit and receive the revenue from the enforcement so you would no longer have any incentive to set up speed traps or otherwise artificially lower speed limits to increase revenue because you would never see one single dime. If a road is unsafe, then lower the speed limit and enforce it. It a higher speed is safe, raise it and let motorist drive the safe speed.

 

APPLAUSE.....APPLAUSE.........

Only thing I'd add is to offer local municipalities some of your ticket revenue for road upgrades (probably the number 1 issue regarding accidents), with the most money going to those areas who have shown the most effectiveness in lowering traffic injury/death/accident rates.

I'd bet a dollar to a donut that any municipality who focused on speeding ticket fines would not qualify for significantly lowering traffic accidents/deaths/injuries.

Maybe throw in some dollars to those municipalities who have the highest "satisfaction ratings" for the local police depts who have the highest citizen ratings. Send a survey to the public asking them to rate their local police/sherif depts as to how well they've served those that pay their salaries....we, the people.

Unfortunately, that would involve yet another gov't bureau. We all know how efficient that will be......

 

BTW... I got another V1 yesterday... the woman said it was the biggest waste of money she has ever spent... 2 tickets in the month since she bought it.
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....Hmmm, That woman should have spent the extra $$$ for the invisible paint.
I bet that Trooper #4968 hasn't ticketed many of those!

 

I'm not really a speeder but there is another way to look at speed limits.
I believe the speed limits were set in the 50's. The automobiles now handle, brake, steer, etc, much better than the old cars. If people would pay attention when they drive the speed limit could easily be increased 20 mph across the board.

 

While true....speed limits were set in the '50s (not uncommon to see 75 MPH speed limit on most interstates). Then, there was this whole bogus campaign of "speed kills", that took speed limits down to about 65 MPH or so. Once that whole theory was debunked, the alleged gas crisis hit in the '70s (where the Shell's of the world said we only had enough oil to last another decade....another myth debunked) and the national speed limit was set at 55 MPH. All that was bogus information and the speed limit has slowly crept back up....it's not to the point where it was in the '50s and '60s, but it has crept up. Much to the chagrin of municipalities since it's a huge revenue generator.

And, you're absolutely right that today's cars are much safer and handle better than those of even 10 years ago. As such, they are capable of traveling safely in excess of the higher speed limits that were in place even in the '50s-'60s.

Here's my "razzy" award for the worst public servant of at least this month.....

Apparently, this is all over the state of CT's news, recently.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7267447/

The entire state populace is outraged by the attitude of the entire state trooper dept. (and rightfully so). How much do you want to bet that at the next budget meeting, lawmakes find a way, at the insistence of the public, to cut funding to for at least one Trooper?

 

APPLAUSE.....APPLAUSE.........

Only thing I'd add is to offer local municipalities some of your ticket revenue for road upgrades (probably the number 1 issue regarding accidents), with the most money going to those areas who have shown the most effectiveness in lowering traffic injury/death/accident rates.

I'd bet a dollar to a donut that any municipality who focused on speeding ticket fines would not qualify for significantly lowering traffic accidents/deaths/injuries.

Maybe throw in some dollars to those municipalities who have the highest "satisfaction ratings" for the local police depts who have the highest citizen ratings. Send a survey to the public asking them to rate their local police/sherif depts as to how well they've served those that pay their salaries....we, the people.

Unfortunately, that would involve yet another gov't bureau. We all know how efficient that will be......
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Sadly true words Graphic Guy. Here in Arizona most of the rural counties live by the revenues received from traffic tickets. Because many of these counties have extremely small tax bases they need other forms of revenues to help pay for required services. The state doesn't contribute much and the Fed's are just as bad so the counties direct local services to find ways of generating additional revenue.

I had a friend who was a county sheriff's deputy in a rural Arizona county. He once told me about the unofficial benefits of writing lots of traffic citations on county patrolled highways. In some places its just a sad fact of life.