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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.