# Radar detectors are legal in most states, why the concern about the police detecting their presence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102 "2009-09-06T22:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102/21 "2009-09-09T15:09:08Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Does anybody have a problem with that? I think it’s a great system. Police need revenue for their budget. They can either tax law abidding citizen me or they can fine non-law abidding citizen speeder who’s endangering the towns citizens by speeding through it. It’s like taxing criminals. Yes. The issue is that the cost of a minor infraction is very high. It also hurts the poor and middle class more than the wealthy. Few would complain about an area that is genuinely being served by reducing dangerous speeding. But there are many areas where people perceive that the speed limit is dropped when passing through a jurisdiction for the sake of writing tickets. That’s where people get upset about it. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102/22 "2009-09-09T16:10:43Z")
> [@Thalion](#): > > I’m a cop, for those who don’t know. > > I also keep my radar unit in standby mode until I actually see a car that appears to be speeding. By the time your detector goes off, I already have your speed locked in. > [@Red\_Skeezix](#): > > This is only partially true, since the beam diffuses over distance, and radar detectors will detect radio emissions that are directed at another vehicle. You are right that if Thalion kept his radar on at all times, you’d see him before he could get a reading. But, he doesn’t do that. He waits until he sees you, then quickly turns on his radar. By the time his radar turns on, you are already in detection range. When your radar detector goes off, your only course of action is to think of an excuse why you were going 80 mph in a 40mph zone. (Oh, this is **Route 80**. I see that sign was the Route number. Thanks for pointing that out to me, officer. Now that I know that, I’ll never speed again!). Oh, interesting is that New York allows radar detectors, but Connecticut doesn’t. There’s a [small slice of I.H. 684](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=new+york&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=us&ei=1dKnSu2vAszulAfxkrmAAQ&ll=41.093325,-73.683586&spn=0.138168,0.219383&z=12) that briefly wanders from New York into Connecticut before wandering back into New York. The Connecticut state troopers are out there catching all of those New Yorkers who didn’t realize they wandered into Connecticut. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102/23 "2009-09-09T16:15:36Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Oh, this is **Route 80**. I see that sign was the Route number. > _snip_ > small slice of I.H. 684 “I don’t know how fast I was going, officer. The needle pegged at 150.” ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102/24 "2009-09-09T16:21:36Z")
The signs at the Virginia border used to say that radar detectors were illegal and “subject to seizure”. Now they just say they are illegal. I assume there were problems taking property from citizens of other states. I once knew a minister who removed the radar detector from his car each year so he could honestly answer the question on his insurance survey about not having a radar detector in his car. As soon as he completed the survey he put it back. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102/25 "2009-09-09T19:11:42Z")
> [@chaoticbear](#): > > Except for setting my cruise control for 74 on the freeway, I’m content to drive the speed limit So you don’t speed except for when you speed. Me too! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102/26 "2009-09-11T02:31:02Z")
> [@Thalion](#): > > A common assumption that simply isn’t true. I know that many agencies do depend on ticket revenues (a situation that I despise), but it isn’t universal. Where I work, over 70% of every fine goes to the state and doesn’t go into the city’s coffers. Our city budget does not in any way work off of ticket revenue, and in 22 years I’ve never been told we need to be writing more tickets or have even ever heard what our ticket revenues are. > > Here, and in many (probably most) other places, tickets are used to make people comply with the law and to promote traffic safety. Period. I forget exactly what it is here but in New Jersey the state gets over 90% of ticket revenue. The money the township gets barely pays for the overhead of the court system itself (clerks, judge, PD, prosecutor). Over the last 11 years there have been multiple times when we have been pressured to write more tickets. It has always been to push us to work harder. It has never been to get more revenue for the town. We would not respond well to that. Every once and a while the state will raise the rate on certain statutes in order to help the state budget (like $180 for failure to provide documents up from about $40). I couldn’t care less about the state’s budget. But I still have a job to do and I do it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radar-detectors-are-legal-in-most-states-why-the-concern-about-the-police-detecting-their-presence/509102.md?page=1)