Re Tickets: Safety check or cash grab

Steve Bond, April 24

I retired this past August after 30 years with a large urban police department in Western Canada, where I spent the last 15 years in the Traffic Section.

I was trained in the operation of laser speed enforcement back in the very early 1990s, radar in the late 1970s. As you can well imagine, my occupation didn't make many friends!

I will tell you now, from one who has many hundreds of hours of laser operation with the unit mounted on a very sturdy tripod to ensure accuracy, that motorcycles were the most difficult to target.

The ones that were easier, of course, were the ones like Honda Gold Wings and full dresser Harleys with fairings.

I could not believe at times how difficult it was to measure motorcycle speed. Squeeze after squeeze of the trigger got nothing but error beeps until the bikes were about 50 to 100 metres away, as read on the law's distance screen. Remove the fairings and things were even harder to measure. Some went past with no hits at all!

Steve Bond's Suzuki SV1000S, with its stealth fighter‑styled bodywork, would be virtually impossible to pick off. (Paint it flat black and it would be invisible since the infrared light won't reflect back!)

Now the officer claims he got Bond at more than 400 metres away. Bulls‑t! I believe that Bond was likely over the limit and not by much, as he claimed; that a large car was closing in fast on him; that the cop read something at 400‑plus metres.

Well, it wasn't the bike considering the size of its frontal area and angular shapes compared to how that vehicle behind was shaped. He got the car, satisfied himself that someone on a crotch rocket was the culprit and stopped Bond.

I don't recall many instances where we could measure a regular vehicle over 700 metres away, even when it was alone on a quiet roadway.

So a bike at almost half‑a‑kilometre away is impossible to register. I know. I was doing that work for years!

This is one situation where the use of old‑fashioned radar would have caught the right vehicle.

Radar flashes speeds of anything downwind, both approaching and departing in the other direction. By watching the traffic in the area, how the vehicles compare to each other in traffic (who's making the moves to pass, who's apparently going faster), the readout would have likely shown, in Bond's instance, 120 km/h, 90, 120, 91, 120, 87 ‑you get my drift.

He'd have seen the car gaining fast on Bond, stepped out slowing both of them down, then flagged over the car. Laser doesn't offer this type of discretion.

Looking through the sight where you place the super‑imposed red dot on the object and squeezing the trigger, there's no way to easily see who's making the moves as they approach.

See 120 km/h ‑ ahh, a motorcycle, and it gets pulled over and charged with speeding.

Could Bond have won his case? His word against a cop who may have several hundred hours of operation of radar and laser equipment?

That's a hard nut to crack unless there was a credible witness to state that the car behind vas closing in fast. I hope Bond got a break on the ticket.

I hope this letter helps provide a better understanding, from the dark‑side's view at least.

Equipment is only as good as the operator ‑ be that a ditch digger, crane operator or traffic speed enforcement officer.

Name and address supplied, but withheld on request.

Write to Yourview, Wheels, Toronto Star, One Yonge St., Toronto Ont. M5E1E6 or send e‑mail to wheels@thestar.ca. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number.