Police Beat by Tom GeyerRoadside Safety Check in Rock Island County, radar detectors
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 8:08 pmIllinois State Police from District 7 headquarters, East Moline, will hold a roadside safety check somewhere in Rock Island County the weekend of April 3.
It is not known where they will set up that weekend, or on what day. Of course, they’ll be looking for drunk drivers, people driving erratically, people driving without seatbelts, and those driving with suspended or revoked driver’s licenses.
Now, just about every weekend you can find at least one or two Illinois State troopers in down-town Rock Island. Sometimes they park at the foot of Centennial Bridge watching for speeders and erratic drivers, and sometimes they park about 1,000 feet from the bridge and use their LIDAR to nail speeders coming into Rock Island. (Yes, 15th Street is a state highway.) And then just when you think you’ve made it into the city undetected, they’re behind you with lights going.
Notice I said the police use LIDAR, not RADAR. Anyone spending money on an expensive radar detector for their car have simply taken their hard-earned money and slipped it into someone else’s pocket.
LIDAR stands for light detection and ranging. You can measure speed, distance, rotation, etc.
It is not a wide beam. It is a very thin beam of light. All an officer does is point it a something me-tallic on the car that reflects the light back to the LIDAR gun and boom. They’ve got ya. Since it’s such a thin beam instead of a wide beam, it has to hit your radar detector for it to produce an alert.
I got a lesson in this out at a speed trap Davenport was running last year on U.S. 61. The man they stopped was mad that the radar detector he had just bought did not alert him to the cops. He still had it on and one of the cops pointed the LIDAR at it. It would not stop beeping. He just turned it off and cursed. And he signed his ticket.
Will there be ways to defeat LIDAR? No doubt at some point, some smart person will find a way. Change and advances in technology are always occurring.
But until you get yourself some of that new technology, speed over the Centennial Bridge at your own risk. And don’t say nobody warned you.
Tags: radar detectors, roadside safety checks, Rock Island County
March 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
I drive to Iowa everyday and return on the same bridge and I drive the speed limit and I feel like I am on a racetrack. I think the minimum anyone drives over the bridge is 40-45 mph and I just keep wondering when someone is going to answer their phone or text and hit that little median and launch themselves into oncoming traffic then something might get done about how fast people drive on the bridge.
I always kid people that the most dangerous thing you can do during the day in QC is drive around town and drive the speed limit, try it sometime and just wait for all the pissed off people who could not manage to organize there time well enough to make it to that important life changing meeting,interview or date. They hit the snooze 2 or 3 times and then jump out of bed and drive like an idiot and act like its everybody on the roads fault there running behind and late.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am
It’s all about the revenue folks. Don’t be fooled by they “safety” talk. If they wanted you to slow down they wouldn’t hide. They are just donut eatin revenue agents. Oh, they will chase your killer only after you’re dead!
March 28th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Are they trying to underline safety or scam money out of unknowing motorists? Be honest now!!!
March 28th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Yes Lidar’s a new technology they use to beat the radar detectors that people usually use. but not all state are sing it already so some state your radar detector might get handy. just be careful though and make sure it’s still legal.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
so, so francis, the rumor that all radar detectors are illegal isnt true?