Best Radar Detector

[loaf911]

As a police officer for the past 20 years, I believe the Valentine One is the best protection you can get. Some of the other models may have a slight range advantage, but they do not tell you how many radar units are operating, or where. The Valentine One provides this essential information, and they have the option of remote mounting. I have even seen aftermarket rear view mirrors with the display stealthily integrated into the mirror itself to work with the remote use feature. In my opinion, the Valentine One offers the best protection and a nice variety of clean, tasteful, and stealthy mounting options.

There are a lot of officers out there who write tickets like they are in some kind of contest (unfortunately, there are state-sponsored contests around the holidays, and during campaigns like "click it or ticket", during which you can win a nifty clipboard in exchange for ruining the driving records, causing insurance increases, and providing a financial hardship for hundreds of people in a weekend). Although I am radar certified, I do not like to write tickets. I believe tickets are priced way too high, and hurt everyday people. During the recession, our state wasn't getting enough money and doubled the price of tickets, along with driver licenses, vehicle registration, and other essential things. The last speeding ticket I wrote was in 2005 or 2006, because you have to do something really stupid to make me write a ticket you have to pay. The only reason I even got radar certified in the first place was because I wanted to ride the motorcycle, which required an assignment to traffic. I figured the only thing better than riding was getting paid to ride. Two weeks after I was moved to traffic, our agency got rid of the motors. I wrote several hundreds of warnings, however. The administrators always say tickets are about educating people, not about money, so who says they can't be educated with a warning? At least that's the argument I used when they gave me a hard time about my lack of citation numbers.

The radar is a device which does not tell you which vehicle is committing the violation; it merely gives you a number and an audio Doppler tone. The determination on which vehicle is producing the reading is up to the operator. Although there are more sophisticated units on the market now, they do still emit a radio signal. In our area, it is either K (24.15ghz) or Ka band (33.4-36ghz). I have never seen an X-band radar unit, and I'm not even sure if they are still in use anywhere. Laser is much more precise, but detectors can pick up reflections if they are targeting someone else, so you still have a fighting chance. Also, all of the lasers I know of have to be used from a stationary position. One reason is they require you to look through a scope-type device, and the second is I don't believe they have the ability to compensate for the speed of patrol vehicle while moving. At the very least, a radar / laser detector will afford you some warning these devices are in operation in your immediate vicinity, and allow you to take corrective action. In my opinion, the Valentine One does the best job at giving you the information necessary to protect yourself.

[lippy]

Originally Posted by loaf911

As a police officer for the past 20 years, I believe the Valentine One is the best protection you can get. Some of the other models may have a slight range advantage, but they do not tell you how many radar units are operating, or where. The Valentine One provides this essential information, and they have the option of remote mounting. I have even seen aftermarket rear view mirrors with the display stealthily integrated into the mirror itself to work with the remote use feature. In my opinion, the Valentine One offers the best protection and a nice variety of clean, tasteful, and stealthy mounting options.

There are a lot of officers out there who write tickets like they are in some kind of contest (unfortunately, there are state-sponsored contests around the holidays, and during campaigns like "click it or ticket", during which you can win a nifty clipboard in exchange for ruining the driving records, causing insurance increases, and providing a financial hardship for hundreds of people in a weekend). Although I am radar certified, I do not like to write tickets. I believe tickets are priced way too high, and hurt everyday people. During the recession, our state wasn't getting enough money and doubled the price of tickets, along with driver licenses, vehicle registration, and other essential things. The last speeding ticket I wrote was in 2005 or 2006, because you have to do something really stupid to make me write a ticket you have to pay. The only reason I even got radar certified in the first place was because I wanted to ride the motorcycle, which required an assignment to traffic. I figured the only thing better than riding was getting paid to ride. Two weeks after I was moved to traffic, our agency got rid of the motors. I wrote several hundreds of warnings, however. The administrators always say tickets are about educating people, not about money, so who says they can't be educated with a warning? At least that's the argument I used when they gave me a hard time about my lack of citation numbers.

The radar is a device which does not tell you which vehicle is committing the violation; it merely gives you a number and an audio Doppler tone. The determination on which vehicle is producing the reading is up to the operator. Although there are more sophisticated units on the market now, they do still emit a radio signal. In our area, it is either K (24.15ghz) or Ka band (33.4-36ghz). I have never seen an X-band radar unit, and I'm not even sure if they are still in use anywhere. Laser is much more precise, but detectors can pick up reflections if they are targeting someone else, so you still have a fighting chance. Also, all of the lasers I know of have to be used from a stationary position. One reason is they require you to look through a scope-type device, and the second is I don't believe they have the ability to compensate for the speed of patrol vehicle while moving. At the very least, a radar / laser detector will afford you some warning these devices are in operation in your immediate vicinity, and allow you to take corrective action. In my opinion, the Valentine One does the best job at giving you the information necessary to protect yourself.

Good to hear you are fairer than most. My wife received a rolling right on red in Redwood City CA and it cost us $600. Tickets are supposed to be punitive, they aren't supposed to generate revenue. Completely unethical in my view.