Radar

Traffic enforcement officers are responsible for enforcing and citing various violations of the traffic code. Their primary focus is often on the most common violation, speeding. There are numerous benefits to speed enforcement, including the ability to lower crime rates; the ability to increase safety on the roadways; monetary savings in lower insurance, health care, and tax costs; revenue generation; and gains from asset forfeitures. Speed limits are determined scientifically through the use of traffic engineering and are enforced by way of scientific equipment; speeding convictions are validated by technical testimony about the scientific principles underlying detection by radar and other speed detection devices. Posted speed limits are generally designed for 70% of all drivers, with a standard deviation of approximately 15%. Drivers who operate outside of this range can be considered unsafe drivers. The most effective devices are radio detection and ranging (RADAR), visual average speed computer and record (VASCAR), and light amplification by simulated emission of radiation (LASER; sometimes called LIDAR).

Radar in law enforcement was a military technology developed during World War II to alert of approaching enemy aircraft. Law enforcement radar is distinguished because it is a pulse-type radar. It sends a cone-shaped stream of radio wave crests that is reflected or bounced back. The echo is returned by the object detected. The number of wave crests is the frequency. When the object is stationary, the frequency of the echo is the same as the frequency of the transmission. However, when an object is moving, the echo will have a different frequency, which can be calibrated by a voltmeter on an mph scale. This change in echo frequency for moving objects, known as the Doppler Effect, was first established in 1842 by Christian Doppler.

Traffic radar units are manufactured by at least six different companies and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are all alike in that they produce low-level microwave radiation and a low-power electromagnetic field. In thousands of research experiments, it has been shown repeatedly that long-term exposure to microwave radiation and electromagnetic fields can have detrimental biological effects on the exposed individual. Studies cite the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as having stated that exposure to microwave radiation and radio-frequency radiation is potentially cancerous. The Office of Health and Environmental Assessment (OHEA) and the EPA staff recommended that radio-frequency and microwave radiation be labeled as a Class C carcinogen. Class C comprises those substances that are possible human carcinogens, such as methyl chloride, trichlorethane, and saccharine.

Traffic radar can provide a technological deterrent to slow down motorists, making the roadways safer. However, many safety questions have yet to be answered. The organization primarily responsible for setting exposure limits is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The current exposure limit allowed by ANSI for traffic radar frequencies is about the exposure limit in some European countries. Many of the radar units produced today, used by American police departments, [Page 400]would be banned overseas. As a result, throughout the early 1990s, as a result of research and articles presenting the inherent danger of long-term exposure to radiation, many departments began searching for alternatives for speed detection and enforcement. Currently, radar and microwave sources are recommended to be operated, if at all, with great care, and ideally, external to the vehicles in which radar is operated. All operators should be apprised of the potential hazards involved.

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