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Officers Try To Verify Accuracy Of Laser Speed Guns

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"Police officers took aim at vehicles zipping down a

runway in tests meant to convince judges that laser

speed guns, increasingly popular among law

enforcement, are as accurate as radar guns, the

Associated Press reports. At the Virginia National

Guard's Fort Pickett, near Richmond, the guns

screeched and whined as officers zeroed in on a

variety of vehicles including, cars, trucks, a large van,

and motorcycles.

The officers took turns disclosing the speeds their

devices recorded, whether by a laser gun, radar, time-

distance measure, or other methods, as an officer

with a clipboard wrote them down. Sometimes, they

all matched. Other times, one or two was off by a mile

an hour. At least a dozen courts from New Jersey to

Hawaii have taken what is referred to as judicial

notice, or general acceptance, of laser speed guns.

Some prosecutors and judges still aren't sold on the

accuracy of the hand-held devices. The testing

officers, about 20 from Virginia, West Virginia,

Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina, hope

their tests will change doubters' minds."

Associated Press/Washington Post - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xkvCOqCHZkdOn0vv3pkdvmIejCCCFzAqlXlNKFfLz-A7KFcaKdEgQDp9HmTSP2Y2tKna1jsoLPuF7q-RbG9ntyMSaxYrSOhu468ZY6utuDyxk71BMyzCQGLxGQ4nVtWZBvxLoL2sryTop0PDgGwQcJSAZWm5EkVJpyi51c9DByX_a-XWVKQNJjffz7s6XLQT1WKE_QhLDuhusOwtZb3bJQ==

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).