Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!ihnp4!drutx!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!petsd!peora!joel From: joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) Newsgroups: net.auto Subject: Re: (A Sermon on) Radar Surveillance Message-ID: <1456@peora.UUCP> Date: Thu, 8-Aug-85 11:44:39 EDT Article-I.D.: peora.1456 Posted: Thu Aug 8 11:44:39 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 01:07:19 EDT References: <2493@pegasus.UUCP> Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl. Lines: 32 >I'm also not a big fan of getting speeding tickets. However, the >idea that radar guns represents random electronic surveilance is >not necessarily unreasonable. For example, the model K-55 radar >gun has an auto speed alarm which will go off whenever it detects >something in its field which is moving faster than a preset speed. >This requires no intervention on the part of the patrol officer. >Now, how is looking for "interesting speeds" different from the >government's (past/present?) policy of scanning international calls >for "interesting words"? Certainly you'll agree that in both cases >people are being spied upon without probable cause. Give me a break!! How can anyone insist that operating an automobile on a public highway is a private act? It stretchs the definition of privacy all out of its normal limits. Operating an automobile on a public highway is part of your public behavior. I do however think that passing a law against radar detectors is silly. It seems to me that laws like this make the police look foolish, since they are nearly unenforceable. How would they show probable cause for searching your car for a radar detector, or even pulling you over? How much time should the police spend looking for illegal radar detectors. How would they prove that a device was for detecting radar and not the leakage from your microwave oven for instance? That doesn't mean I approve of radar detectors or the people who use them. I know of no use for them besides allowing their owners to violate the speed limit with impunity. I sometimes speed and I don't have a radar dectector. If that makes me more cautious about when, where, and by how much I speed, then I consider that all to the good.