DEPUTIES WANT TO GET UP TO SPEED : DEPARTMENT REQUESTS NEW LASER TRAFFIC GUN.Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer If the Palmdale Sheriff's traffic division gets its way, deputies may get a new traffic enforcement weapon - a laser gun - designed to pick out individual speeders better than radar can. ``It could be a great help to us during our traffic operations,'' said Deputy Mike Redding Redding, city (1990 pop. 66,462), seat of Shasta co., N central Calif., on the Sacramento River; inc. 1872. A principal tourist center for a mountain and lake region, it also has lumbering, food-processing, and diverse manufacturing. , a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department This article is about the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department, not to be confused with the smaller Los Angeles County Police The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is a local law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. traffic investigator working out of the Palmdale Sheriff's Substation. ``The laser is selective where the radar is not,'' Redding said. ``The technology is new, but everyone's using them (laser guns).'' Costing $4,000 to $5,000, the laser gun is among traffic safety recommendations made by city and sheriff's officials in a report to the city council. The Palmdale City Council is reviewing the recommendations. Radar guns radar gun n. A usually hand-held device that measures the velocity of a moving object by sending out a continuous radio wave and measuring the frequency of reflected waves. emit radio waves Radio waves Electromagnetic energy of the frequency range corresponding to that used in radio communications, usually 10,000 cycles per second to 300 billion cycles per second. in a cone shape that spans an area about 1,000 feet deep and 20 feet wide. As the waves bounce off the objects that they hit, the guns can pick up more than one vehicle, but are designed to read out the speed of the vehicle that is returning the greatest amount of energy within the beam. That means a truck gets picked up over a motorcycle, even if the motorcycle is going faster. While the radar cannot target certain vehicles - just certain areas - the laser gun sends out a thin beam of light, able to target a particular car. The laser gun holds no advantage over radar in avoiding detection by wily speeders, deputies said. Radar detectors  This article or section may deal primarily with the U.S. and may not present a worldwide view. now are able to detect
lasers as well.
Deputies patrolling Palmdale have radar guns mounted on four traffic patrol cars. They also have a hand-held radar gun for special operations Operations conducted in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to achieve military, diplomatic, informational, and/or economic objectives employing military capabilities for which there is no broad conventional force requirement. . If the sheriff's department gets its wish, the laser gun would be a hand-held unit for special operations. |
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