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Re: Need Help Bad speeding ticket



In article <mcm141.68.30A7A560@psu.edu>, The Highlander <mcm141@psu.edu> wrote:
>In article <487p2l$c4n@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu> adr5@ciao.cc.columbia.edu (Alex D Rodriguez) writes:
>>This sounds pretty good except that the margin of error of radar is very 
>>small, less than 1 mph, when properly use and the results are properly 
>>interpreted.  It is quite possible for an inattentive person to misuse the 
>>radar or to get misleading readings from it.  Radar is extrmely acurate, its
>>the operators that aren't always that good at interpreting the results.

>Are you saying that the officers who are paid to do traffic patrol aren't 
>correctly trained to use the equipment available to them? Instead of having 
>all these margins of doubt, why aren't the people who are trained and paid to 
>use these radars actually throughly trained to use them? I was told in PA that 
>the radar is only required by law to be calibrated every 90 days. I find this 
>ridiculous. I'd much rather have the radar calibrated much more often, and 
>that way there is less of a doubt. But, I think the speed limit should 
>definitely be raised on most highways.

There are no nationwide standards on how much training an officer needs to
operate radar.  A while back the government mades some recommendations, but
thats all they are recommendations.  Some  departments have very good 
training programs, others have very poor programs.  It's a crapshot for the
motorist.  While the radar units only have to be calibrated every 90 days
they must be checked for accuracy mutiple times a day by using calibrated
tuning forks.  For something that is used to convict so many people the 
standards are very lax and this allows municipalities to abuse this to 
generate huge amounts of cash.












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Alex     __O    '86 Dodge Omni GLH Turbo                                    
       _-\<,_   '87 Alfa Romeo Milano                                       
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