It is very common to see police on the side of the road holding radar guns. Typically, when an officer issues you a speeding ticket it is due to radar gun evidence.
Many people wonder if it is possible to challenge radar gun evidence in court. According to FindLaw, it is possible to do but it is very difficult.
How does a radar gun work?
Radar guns can both send and receive radio signals. So they will send a signal toward a particular vehicle, and receive the same signal back once it bounces off. Then, using the Doppler effect, the radar gun can calculate how fast the car is going.
In some districts, the police have moved to using light detection and ranging technology, which is similar to traditional radar but uses lasers rather than radio waves. This generally makes the guns more accurate.
How can I argue against radar gun evidence?
The most common ways are to either challenge the actual evidence itself or challenge the amount of training the officer had on the radar gun. For instance, in order for radar gun results to be accurate, the officer must calibrate the device regularly. If the officer does not calibrate the device regularly, then this is an easy way to challenge the evidence.
The next most common way is with challenging the officer’s training. It is generally easy to find out whether or not a police officer has training on either radar or laser technology. If the officer does not have proper training, you can argue that the radar gun showed incorrect results as a result of human error rather than your actual speed.
