Other - Patrol Stuff

Moved this quote over so as not to get the other off-topic..

tdrive2 wrote:Hwybear are you west of london where your unit patrolls do they have highway safety divisions there?

Yes and No.....yes I'm confused also. We were once the "401 Corridor Safety Team", then to HEAT (Highway Enforcement Action Team), then to HSD (Highway Safety Division), now just back to Chatham-Kent, but we are encouraged to go into neighbouring detachments area on the 401, so we can patrol anywhere from London to Windsor and carry ticket books for each area. Same officers, same patrol area, report from same location.....nothing changed.

Your right though especially in that essex-chatam area i really see it slow down. I rarely go there but usually west of london things tend to slow down. I noticed in your lidar intercept pic you took it was 2 lanes with a grass median.

Correct 2 lanes WB and 2 lanes EB with a grass median. We rarely see the 50 over's in our part.....maybe it's b/c our office only works the 401 and we have 7 officers per shift and we have an extra overlap shift that works, that brings some times of the day up to a potential 13 cruisers.

Do you guys use alot more lidar there?

We use both lidar and radar. I prefer lidar when I'm stationary. I sit x-ways on a uturn, boldy visible and still stop vehicles travelling too fast. Probably 80% of the vehicles are within 200m on my last reading with lidar.....one plainly visible uturn I use, the average vehicle is about 100m away on the last reading, that's weird, but it is a straight stretch for 3km from the east and 12km to the west.....but it is just enough upgrade to the uturn from both directions, people do not raise their eyes up. It is amazing how many drivers have little to no eye lead up the road, if you are scanning for dangers (collisions, deer etc....) you would see the big cruiser parked x-ways.

Moving radar is unique with a grass median......there are some areas where a cruiser can easily and safely cross the grass median, so oncoming traffic is fair game!

I would guess in the toronto area they use more radar (harder to use lidar on multilane highways with alot of traffic

Using lidar in higher traffic is not harder, rather different to setup (I have used it on 6 lane near London). Can not set up near the passing lane, due to concrete barrier (not safe for lidar operator) so the option is going on top of an overpass. The overpass is great, but the different part is getting the chase cars from the ramp, across however many lanes to the offending vehicle, plus the chase car has to contend with traffic using that same ramp and it all has to be done safely.

So radar in those areas is used more frequently as is "pacing", now how a vehicle is pulled over in that area is beyond me, I have no experience in that and give the officers there "kudos" on how they do it!

hwybear wrote:It is amazing how many drivers have little to no eye lead up the road, if you are scanning for dangers (collisions, deer etc....) you would see the big cruiser parked x-ways.

It seems that anyone who is travelling over 120 km/h and cannot spot a plainly marked cruiser parked in the median is not paying enough attention to be driving at a high speed... therefore, deserving of a ticket.

hwybear wrote:Using lidar in higher traffic is not harder, rather different to setup (I have used it on 6 lane near London).

Would that be the Elgin Road overpass, by any chance? It's used quite often.

Radar Identified wrote:Would that be the Elgin Road overpass, by any chance? It's used quite often.

maybe...