NEW SPEED ENFORCEMENT UNIT NOW IN USE

Law enforcement officers in Missouri and Illinois can now spot speeding drivers with the same advanced technology that the U.S. military uses to lock onto targets.

Authorities say the new lidar (light detection and ranging) technology eventually will render obsolete all of the radar detectors motorists now use to try to beat police radar.

Five of the lidar units are now in use in Illinois and six are in use in Missouri. But a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol in Jefferson City said it may be some time before the lidar is in use in outstate.

In a pilot program paid by a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration grant, the Missouri Division of Highway Safety has provided six lidar units for testing by officers of the patrol's Gateway District in the St. Louis area. Four of the units will be used by the St. Louis Police Department's Traffic Division and the other two units will be shared between 21 other agencies in the St. Louis area.

Illinois State Police at Springfield said the five lidar units, also provided by a NHTSA grant, are being used in the central and northern part of the state. The closest lidar unit in Southern Illinois is at Belleville.

The units work by emitting a stream of invisible, infrared, laser light pulses at a car, truck, van or motorcycle. Microchips and optic devices within the unit measure the time it takes the light to reach the object and return, and calculate the speed of the object.

Illinois State Police Director Terrance W. Gainer said lidar can measure speeds from 5 to 299 mph and are accurate to within 1 mph.

Besides their exceptional accuracy, the units have several advantages over conventional radar, or microwave speed-timing devices, Gainer said.

"They can pick out a single target with a focused beam of infrared light from as far away as a thousand feet," he said. "The beam on a conventional radar unit fans out much more broadly over the same distance."

The ability to zero in on targets is enhanced by the system's aiming sight, called a "heads-up display." This features a lighted aiming reticle a sophisticated cross-hairs that emits a steady tone when the target is "locked on." The display also includes an illuminated target speed indicator that will tell the officer how fast the vehicle is going. The officer's eyes never leave the sight, thereby eliminating the motorist's claim that the officer was checking another vehicle.

"Maybe best of all," Gainer said, "there's no radar detector on the market that can spot a lidar unit in operation. This puts us one step ahead of chronic violators."

Sgt. Richard Coffey of the Missouri Highway Patrol's research and development division in Jefferson City, said that despite the advantages of lidar, the patrol has no plans to purchase any of the units in the immediate future.

"We just completed a staff study of two different laser speed-timing models," he said. "The units are very accurate and not readily detectable by current detectors," Coffey said. "But there are some disadvantages over the conventional radar units now in use by our officers."

Coffey said cost is probably the major disadvantage. Right now a lidar unit costs between $4,000 and $5,000, depending on the number of units purchased at one time.

"For the price of one lidar unit, we can purchase the latest, in-car model radar unit that can detect speed violators ahead of and behind the patrol car," he said. "The lidar units we tested are also somewhat larger and heavier than the radar units we are using. Unless they're mounted on something stable, the lidar units become more difficult to aim after a period of time because of their weight."

Coffey said lidar technology is still in its infancy. "These units only became available about two to three years ago. I'm sure that as time goes on, lidar technology will improve, which will, in turn, make the lidar units easier to use and more price competitive with radar," he said.

Cape Girardeau police said the high cost of lidar compared to radar is also the reason the department has no immediate plans to purchase any of the units.

"They are expensive and our budget won't allow it," said Sgt. Al Moore of the traffic division. "I used a demonstration lidar unit last fall during a highway safety seminar in Springfield. They're impressive in the way they operate, but right now they're just too expensive for our department."

Capt. Robert Hull, assistant chief of police of the Jackson Police Department, agreed expense is the reason the department cannot purchase any of them at this time. "We've looked at them but had to back off because they're too expensive. Perhaps as the price comes down in the future we can take another look at them," he said.

All law enforcement agencies contacted said they have no problems with the lidar devices.

"Our major concern in running radar is not to write a bunch of tickets or make a lot of money, but to make people aware of their excess speed and that they need to slow down," said Coffey. "And keep in mind that despite all the advertising claims you read or hear, when the radar detector in the vehicle we're aiming at goes off, it's too late for the driver to slow down.

"It's true the radar detectors in vehicles behind the first vehicle will go off and warn the other drivers. But what do they do? They slow down, and that's what we're trying to do out there; make them slow down."

There's something new to keep motorists with radar detectors on edge; they're called radar drone units.

"Actually, they're one half of a total radar unit," Coffey explained. "They are programmed to transmit an intermittent radar signal that simulates a radar in use. They will set off radar detectors in vehicles. The problem is, speeding drivers do not know if they are coming from a drone unit or a real radar unit operated by a traffic officer. Either way, they're going to slow down to be safe, so we have accomplished our goal."

Coffey said the drone units will compliment efforts of traffic officers in reducing high-speed crashes in metropolitan areas. Kansas City and St. Louis will receive 40 of the drone radar units from the Missouri Division of Highway Safety. A spokesman said both areas have been identified as areas of high incidence for speeding-related injuries.