I’ve heard that they must be in plain view and not hiding in the grass or behind trees like snakes. Is it true that they must be in plain view? If not, what are the laws for them to be visible/not visible to motorists?
Untrue. At least in New Jersey. I can’t answer for the other 49 states. Of course you need a good line of sight to aim the radar/laser. I know this has been asked several times already but I’m not going to attempt a search. The Dope is going at a snail’s pace right now as it is.
I believe that this would vary from place to place. Since it is legal to monitor speed from airplanes and stop lights using unmanned cameras, I think it is safe to say that hiding a cop car behind some bushes would be legal anywhere.
On preview, Loach is a professional in NJ, so he is speaking authoritatively for that state.
I’m going from memory here, but I think California has strict laws about where cops can catch speeders from. They may have the most restrictions on cops.
AFAIK, it’s illegal for police to hide in Ontario to catch speeders. And areas that had speed cameras instead of officers had to be clearly marked, as do “red-light” cameras.
Some jurisdictions have made it illegal for speed cops to conceal themselves. This is an age old argument and I can remember it from 40+ years ago. It’s been demonstrated over and over that police visibility is much more effective as a deterent to speeding, than it is to use concealment to catch speeders.
I’m glad I live in Wisconsin, they’ll never see me from Ontario.
FYI in Wisconsin they do hide. Behind bushes, bridge supports, over the crest of hills etc…
Do you have a cite? I’m from Ontario as well, and never heard of anything like this.
I should add, that since a car ‘parked’ on the freeway, is by law (I think), supposed to have it’s flashers on and be visible from 500 feet on either side, I don’t think it should be legal for a cop to hide under a bridge at night on a very dark stretch of highway to monitor traffic. IMHO that’s more dangerous then someone going a few MPH over the limit.
Virginia does not forbid cops from concealing themselves to run a speed trap.
Several times over the summer, the police here set up lawn chairs. Once, the officer with the radar gun was sitting right in the median. The chase cars were lined up at the next cross street. There were five chase cars and they were kept very busy.
You don’t need to hide to have a speed trap.
They also use shadow cars. Unmarked cars that radio ahead to marked cars to pull over speeders.
Which would explain the empty police car parked off the interstate just outside of the west side of New Orleans. I know there’s no one in it, yet I find myself reflexively tapping the break every time I approach it.
The Ontario Highway Traffic Act makes no such provision. Police must follow conventional Provincial Offences Act rules for catching traffic law violators. There are exceptions for Photo Radar (Part XIV.1) and Red Light Cameras (Part XIV.2) because there is no warrant card holder (i.e. police officers) at the scene making the charge. However, there is no prohibition against a police officer “hiding” in order to catch speeding drivers in Ontario.
I would think that the signs saying Camera Enforcement is also to make people slow down. I would think people would read it and slow down.
There was a TV news story a few years ago about some town using a, life sized, cardboard cutout of a police car to deter speeding. It worked, and when people began to get used to it, they just moved it to another part of town.
No cite, but I seem to remember reading something (in Reader’s Digest I think) about a strategy used somewhere in Japan. They would line up several mannequins in police uniforms along the side of the road. Occasionally, they’d replace one of the mannequins with an actual police office with a radar detector. So when you’re driving along and spot the mannequins, you could never be sure whether you were getting beamed or not.
I don’t know if this is true, but it sounds ingenious enough to be a Japanese idea.
Like snakes? They are out there to hopefully keep nitwits from killing us. I think this is kind of like that urban legend that undercover narcs can’t lie to you when you ask them if they are cops. Speed kills.
I don’t know about Japan, but we have mannequins here in Pennsylvania. It’s usually just one mannequin in a car beside the road, but sometimes they’ll have a few of them up and down the main road near here.
Unfortunately, there are many times when they are out there for income generation and not public protection.
What if they’re hiding in the trees like snakes?
Huh. You’re right. It wasn’t that funny.
Anyway. One argument against hidden-cop speedtraps is the safety issue. Having a cop car or bike speeding out from a hiding spot can be pretty hazardous. I have no idea if this was a WAG or a serious line of reasoning, but I can appreciate the logic.
I’m hiding behind your couch with a radar gun right now.