Radar detectors & tickets?

and a ticket ?

Radar Identified wrote:

Drive in Ontario with a radar detector in the vehicle and you will get it seized. #).

Yep.

Some of the OPP veterans used to not give you a ticket if you would drive over the detector, but I'm not sure how much that's done today.

Yeah, usually when you're caught with a detector/jammer the officers device (usually a laser device) can detect the signal is being jammed and detect that there is a laser jammer and initiate a code. I know this because I requested disclosure of the manual for my speeding trial and it said that a code will display if it detects a jammer.

Truth be told, I wouldn't risk it. I did consider it once... but it's not worth it because you can get 2 tickets (speeding + jammer) OR... you get a ticket when you're not even speeding.

I know some argue they're 'undetectable', but you must remember that getting a ticket for having one of these is 3 demerit points + your insurance increases just like any other moving violation.

Jammers can be detected, detectors can't, (they do not emit any form of emission - they just listen)

only way they can find it, is by a visual inspection, or if they hit your car with the radar and listen for the ping, unless you have a hidden power switch

Sonic wrote:

Yeah, usually when you're caught with a detector/jammer the officers device (usually a laser device) can detect the signal is being jammed and detect that there is a laser jammer and initiate a code. I know this because I requested disclosure of the manual for my speeding trial and it said that a code will display if it detects a jammer.

Truth be told, I wouldn't risk it. I did consider it once... but it's not worth it because you can get 2 tickets (speeding + jammer) OR... you get a ticket when you're not even speeding.

I know some argue they're 'undetectable', but you must remember that getting a ticket for having one of these is 3 demerit points + your insurance increases just like any other moving violation.

Actually, a detector can be detected. A Spectre IV (or whatever they have now) will pick it up. The radar detector has to have some sort of cloaking mechanism for it to go undetected. Radar detector manufacturers are constantly trying to figure out how to cloak their devices, while other companies are figuring out how to "de-cloak" the device. The highly unscientific and mildly inaccurate explanation is that the radar detector "absorbs and distorts" an anomalous amount of the radio wave, which the Spectre IV picks up on.

Of course most cops in jurisdictions where radar detectors are legal simply use some sort of "instant-on" device, see a speeding car approach and BAM! By the time the radar detector or laser detector has gone off, you are toast... kinda like the guy I saw near Banff last month who was jumping up and down in hysterical frustration on what appeared to be a radar detector after getting busted by the Canmore RCMP.

TXS, well you live and learn,

HTH from my googling

Can police detect my radar detector?

O.P.P. in Ontario, Quebec Police (Sret du Qubec or SQ), and RCMP across eastern Canada use Spectre radar-detector-detectors (RDD). Spectre RDD will notify the officer if a radar detector has been detected near-by. Penalty includes a minimum fine of $350 in Manitoba, $170 in Ontario, and $650 in Quebec, and the radar detector will be confiscated. See below for a list of 100% undetectable radar detectors.

Is there an undetectable radar detector?

Two BEL radar detectors are undetectable to police Spectre RDD. They are recommended radar detectors for drivers in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scota, and PEI.

Beltronics STi Magnum

Escort RedLine

Beltronics STi-R Plus

A radar detector can be "detected" itself.

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Some very few police cars carry the equipment. I spoke recently (in the last year) with a Ham radio friend that runs his own shop and is very interesting in all such things. His research concluded that very few units had been sold to the police. The original idea was to enforce new laws making radar detectors illegal in some states. There's not a lot of revenue in "detecting detectors" and so as a business, it didn't warrant the investment to buy more hardware, train more officers and prosecute more cases.

The equipment (and there is more than one type) is primarily used to scan a vehicle already stopped for alleged speeding.

If you're concerned about being "found" using a detector in a US State where detectors are illegal, I would counsel against breaking the law, but if you choose not to comply, I suggest you buy a new model.

I've driven past numerous cars and trucks with older model detectors that "leak" so much they set of my detector.

Here's a quick explanation of why a "receiver" (which sounds passive and shouldn't be making any "noise" so it shouldn't be possible to "hear" it) can be found.

By the way, all radar detectors (civilian and military) are just microwave receivers tuned to the frequencies used by equipment operated by police. The receiver measures a standing radar field at the head of a cone-shaped receiver dish (often squared off to reduce space, such as in consumer products) and "detects" other radar sources by measuring the changes in the standing field effected by external sources. The cone increases the exposure area of the receiver and it's tuned to the range of EM frequencies relevant to the detector.

So if the head of the cone is properly shielded and baffled, no EM gets out (at least so little it's below ambient noise levels) so how could you "detect the detector (man, I'm using a lot of double quotes...)

It's a bit like walking through the security scanners at the airport or at a retail store with "inventory control" tags or little metal strips on their merchandise. The metal tags, like the metal in a gun barrel or a belt buckle, will upset a standing radio field. Since the cone of the radar detector is designed to catch and concentrate radar, then passing radar across the road and measuring fields on the other side could (under ideal conditions) detect the presence of devices that effect radar emissions. This second method explains why having the detector turned off doesn't change the likelihood of being caught.

Again, from speaking with others and the little research I've done myself over the years, neither approach to "detector detectors" has worked.

That's a rather concise explanation of radar, but a little Googling research and you'll learn more.

Ive got to say its a great business model that these companies have. Make a detector, motorists buy them up. Make a detector detector, police buy them up. Now come out with a new model that cant be detected, sell again to the public. Now the police need a newer model , sell to them. Repeat ad infinitum.

It's a ticket, you'll lose your device for good, and it will impact your insurance.

In most cases, having a radar warning device somewhere in your vehicle will fall under the "minor" offense category. It would be similar to a speeding conviction (except when listed as major or serious). There's also the good chance it will be tacked on to whatever speeding charge may have come up initially.

There's a lot of urban myths regarding the radar detector (eg. You can put it in your trunk, back seat, or turn it off and it's legal to be in possession of one). You can't have them in your vehicle, period.

Highway Traffic Act 79. (2) wrote:

Speed measuring warning device prohibited

(2) No person shall drive on a highway a motor vehicle that is equipped with or that carries or contains a speed measuring warning device. 1996, c. 33, s. 12.

Not only that, but you're giving an officer reasonable grounds to go through your entire vehicle

Highway Traffic Act 79. (3) wrote:

Powers of police officer

(3) A police officer may at any time, without a warrant, stop, enter and search a motor vehicle that he or she has reasonable grounds to believe is equipped with or carries or contains a speed measuring warning device contrary to subsection (2) and may seize and take away any speed measuring warning device found in or upon the motor vehicle. 1996, c. 33, s. 12.

There's only one exception and it caters to manufacturers. For example, Beltronics is based out of Ohio but has a manufacturing facility in Mississauga.

Highway Traffic Act 79. (6) wrote:

Exception

(6) Subsection (2) does not apply to a person who is transporting speed measuring warning devices in sealed packages in a motor vehicle from a manufacturer to a consignee. 1996, c. 33, s. 12.