I have a ticket for speeding, but the speed the officer said, I clocked in at slower than the speed goes, I really was. What are some things that cause radar to miscalculate your speed?
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
tracking the wrong car, otherwise they are spot on.
tracking the wrong car ,faulty equipment
if there was more than one car in the radar beam or if something is wrong with it. Maybe the officer cut you a break or didn’t pick up on your speed until after you thought… or perhaps the officer had a delay in holding the speed. I’m not really sure what the big deal is, if he wrote you a ticket for a lower speed….
tracking the wrong car, faulty equipment, uncalibrated equipment, an untrained officer using equipment.
if you are caught by radar, ask for a print out of the speed.they must, in most states, provide the print out (i knew one person who got out of a ticket because the officer printed out and she was slower than the speed he said she was going). you can ask, in most states, to see an officer’s certification to run the machine, to have the officer calibrate the machine in front of you, etc.
While tracking the wrong car, a radar that has not been calibrated in more than six months, and other things are reasons for radar inaccuracy, there may be another reason. If you were told you were going SLOWER than you actually were, maybe the cop was giving you a break so you didn’t get into the higher ticket category. Many times cops will round down if the offender is cool and doesn’t give them crap stories or is just cool about the situation. On the other hand, some cops will round up if your being an idiot, that’s just the way it goes.
Also, it may depend on the area in which the police officer works. If the judge who hears the cases on a paticular court date is a jack@ss, which many are, and if they’re known for throwing the vast majority of cases out or reducing the violation, then many cops will reduce the charge just to issue the ticket and avoid dealing with the court date. Let’s face it, if I get a ticket and it’s rather affordable, I’m paying it instead of taking a day off work to go to court.
Also, fog, rain, and snow will screw with a radar making it read lower, and sometimes a little higher, depending on the situation.
As far as radar goes, there is also a thing called “radar reflection” where the radar bounces from target to target before it is assessed by the machine. To make this more understandable, if you are travelling beside a semi truck and you are tagged with a radar, the radar cone will tend to bounce off the target vehicle and then bounce off the larger vehicle. This will happen several times in a fraction of a second and with each reflection, or bounce, the speed measured will increase a bit, causing the radar to read higher, MUCH HIGHER, than what was actually accomplished by the target vehicle. Obviously this isn’t your situation, but useful info nonetheless.
B.S. ALERT: Contrary to some people’s amaturish opinions or stories they have been told by a neighbor of a friend’s friend, cops do not have to show you the radar, a print out, or the calibration certification. They most certainly can’t calibrate the radar in front of you. That is something that is done elsewhere, and cannot be done on the spot. Radar guns do have tuning forks (which I’m guessing is what this guy is talking about), but that is just to ensure that the radar is picking up the correct speed. Different size forks produce a different reading, and this should not be confused by ignorant people as “callibration.”
Other, larger vehicles in close proximity can sometimes cause a misread. This has been used as a defense many times, sometimes successfully, others not.
idk
The cop was giving you a break……thank him.
Spilt Coffee and Donuts.
Did you slow down after seeing the officer? Perhaps he did not clock you immediately. Maybe he reported a slower speed to give you a break. Your speedometer could be wrong. In short, you CAN’T know the radar miscalculated your speed if it reads LESS than you thought you were going. At some point before you stopped, you WERE traveling the speed the officer stated.
Maybe it wasn’t the radar gun maybe your car speed odometer is wrong.
When the Radar Unit is at an angle to the object it is tracking, it will slightly underestimate the actual speed of the vehicle.
You may have sped up after he locked the RADAR.
Of course, the police officer may have been giving you a break so you wouldn’t bump up into a higher penalty range and have to pay a higher fine.
If the officer was stationary, other than powerful microwave interference, it is not likely that the unit would produce false readings. However, if he was in the moving mode, there are situations that would and very often do create false readings.