ACC buys ex-Police Radars

[grim]

Have you found any of these in your area?

"ACC has been buying old police radar gear in a covert plan to thwart speeding motorists.

The radars have been mounted on power poles at up to 70 sites nationally, and are intended to fool drivers with detectors in their cars into thinking police are nearby.

Five radars have also been bought by school bus companies to slow motorists around children, and another six have been requested.

Official estimates put the number of motorists with radar detectors at about one in 10.

A Wellington firm, Emergency Vehicle Systems, buys the radars from the police and sells them on renamed as "drones".

They are used as part of a project between ACC's road safety action planning group, police, the Transport Agency and councils.

It has been under way for about a year, and about $7000 has been invested so far.

ACC buys the drones for around $150 and passes them on to the agency, councils and others for distribution.

Injury prevention manager Phil Wright said yesterday that 10 drones were initially trialled in Canterbury for six months before being shifted to the North Island.

While there had been no plan to keep the project secret, ACC had been happy for it to remain under wraps, he said.

"We didn't tell anyone as we thought it would be best if, when a signal went off, motorists didn't assume it was part of this programme," Mr Wright said.

In the last financial year, ACC received claims worth at least $81 million relating to crashes where speed was a factor.

Mr Wright said the radar idea had followed on from a proposal by Harry Duynhoven when he was Labour's Transport Minister to ban detectors.

"[Detectors] are sold to people who are the more hardcore speedsters. They are an essential element in a boy-racer car.

"They are banned in Australia. Even if they were banned here, there is a couple of years' leeway for retailers. We thought, 'What can we do in the meantime?"'

Current minister Steven Joyce's office said yesterday that he was still awaiting advice from officials on the proposed detector ban.

It was revealed in July that police had begun removing radars from their fleet throughout the country.

The drones are also being used by roadwork contractors to attach to their machinery.

ACC refused to discuss the location of the drones.

Pukekohe resident Bob Prangnell discovered three of the devices when his radar detector started going off, despite there being no police cars in sight.

"They're all within 10 miles of my house. I drive those roads reasonably often and something was always giving off a radar when there were no police around ... One day, I slowed down and had a look around and saw these things and took some photos."

Mr Prangnell, who's had a detector for eight years, said the drones were a clever idea.

But he was concerned that if they were placed too close to potentially dangerous areas such as intersections, drivers whose devices beeped might slow down suddenly, resulting in their being rear-ended by other cars."

[Guest]

There's several floating around that I know of... one on SH1 Southbound going into Christchurch just past the Waimakariri Bridge. One on SH16 (Northwestern Motorway) Eastbound halfway between Rosebank and Great North Offramps. One on the Appleby Highway near the Appleby School just out of Richmond up in Nelson. SH1 going thru Porrirua North Bound just after the Shell Station.

There's a few more but where escapes me right now... those are the ones that spring to mind though.

The silly thing is though, that when they're enabled, they could be effectively jamming the actual police radar too within a certian range because of the radio noise they'll be producing... at a guess it would only be 500m or so, but it's enough that if you got a ticket near one with anything other than a laser gun that you could have an argument in court (with a good lawyer).

I haven't had a play with a Radar gun near one to see what the exact effects are, but based on the nature of Radio waves it would be a fair statement to say it would significantly reduce the effectiveness of the KA Band Radar Units in Cars... That being said, most Highway enforcement officers are currently in love with their shiny new Laser guns that they point out the window while you're hurling towards them at a great many (or in the NW/Motorways case, 40) kp/h, so it's probably a Moot point.

[ODB]

Radar detectors are definately a factor in reducing speed.

Each time mine beeps i automatically slow down now lol.

plus its instrumental to allow me to go to mt hutt without getting pinged!

[Joker]

thats a good idea!

[MercuryFree]

lol the higher end models equipped with GPS allow you to set and filter out known 'false positives' so they'd have to move these around to make them in any way effective. Plus with police moving radars out of vehicles, eventually you can just turn off KA band and then nobody will pay attention to these at all (given that police will be using LiDAR and speed cameras use K-Band).

I approve of police getting rid of radar though, maybe now I won't get ticketed by stupid policewomen for other people's crimes.

[CMPLSV]

TV3 news called me today to ask my opinion (im on there contact list) and i told them i thought they were a good idea...

- needless to say they told me "thats not the approach we are going for, sorry" in other words they wanted me to hate the idea....

[MercuryFree]

 H8RS H8 said:

TV3 news called me today to ask my opinion (im on there contact list) and i told them i thought they were a good idea...

- needless to say they told me "thats not the approach we are going for, sorry" in other words they wanted me to hate the idea....

NZ News media: a pack of retards.

[Joker]

its their job to sensationalise the little mundane junk

[Guest]

 H8RS H8 said:

TV3 news called me today to ask my opinion (im on there contact list) and i told them i thought they were a good idea...

- needless to say they told me "thats not the approach we are going for, sorry" in other words they wanted me to hate the idea....

Great unethical news reporting ther TV3

Seriously why the hell do they teach us news ethics in journalism when nobody cares or even uses them :-\

[Joker]

sex sells

oh and the "exciting news" or hot topics...

ie must have whales, boyracers or recession built into the title

[Guest]

 JoKer said:

sex sells

oh and the "exciting news" or hot topics...

ie must have whales, boyracers or recession built into the title

"ACC Whale purchases Police Radar to beat Boyracers at Economic Recovery; and Receeding Hairlines."

Does that work?

[ReubenH]

Fucking news organisations eh...

I think it's a bloody brilliant idea. The beeping dectector reminds you to check your speed, and having those strategically mounted about the place to get people more aware of their surounds is fantastic. Too bad the other 90% of the population don't have detectors. I guess that the one in ten that do have them are among the likely candidates for speeding.

[DRFVDR]

two words

Target Practice :)

heheheehhe

[ODB]

 DRFVDR said:

two words

Target Practice :)

heheheehhe

I am so f*cking there dude!!!

[infinite]

my radar has been sitting in my glove box/kicking round the floor in my car for over a year. All my fines are payed off. Just dont seem to get caught anymore not that i speed down every street but i definitly do my fair share. i found that when i had the detector i would get pulled over definitly evan just 5ks over the limit but without it they dont seem to care if your a bit over (that was in my evo 5) went past a cop doing about 80 in a 50k zone but ill put that down to just bloody good luck!. At the end of the day its a game of cat and mouse when u speed sometimes they will catch u other times u will get away... Wats the odds? get caught once for speeding but there will be another 50 times u dont. But i also dont think a fucking school bus should have to put one on to get drivers to slow down thats disgusting (sp) people should atleast have some balls to drive to conditions arround schools and houses.

[ODB]

 infinite said:

my radar has been sitting in my glove box/kicking round the floor in my car for over a year. All my fines are payed off. Just dont seem to get caught anymore not that i speed down every street but i definitly do my fair share. i found that when i had the detector i would get pulled over definitly evan just 5ks over the limit but without it they dont seem to care if your a bit over (that was in my evo 5) went past a cop doing about 80 in a 50k zone but ill put that down to just bloody good luck!. At the end of the day its a game of cat and mouse when u speed sometimes they will catch u other times u will get away... Wats the odds? get caught once for speeding but there will be another 50 times u dont. But i also dont think a ****ing school bus should have to put one on to get drivers to slow down thats disgusting (sp) people should atleast have some balls to drive to conditions arround schools and houses.

I drive past several rural schools on way to mt hutt. In the middle of nowhere on a long highway.

Driving to conditions here would be 100+.

Im always slowed down hard core as per signage!

As you said dude game of cat n' mouse. As a mouse, i always prefer to know when the cat is patrolling for food!