In a secret location off the side of a road in York County FOX43 sat inside the patrol cars of Northern York County Regional Police as they set their sights on catching speeders. Now, if a new bill passes in Pennsylvania it could make their jobs easier by equipping municipal officers with radar guns.
"Everybody usually typically has an excuse," said Officer Gage Baumgardner who on this day, in this 2-person operation, has been charged with turning on the sirens and pulling over offending drivers. His fellow police officer, Patrol Sgt. Cody Becker, is in charge of tracking the violators. "Typically it's that they're running late somewhere. Usually running late to work, for an event, something along those lines. Nothing that's ever really super important but seems to be to them."
Municipal departments such as Northern York County Regional Police are currently unable to use radar guns as under current Pennsylvania law only PA State Police are allowed to use the technology. A recent bill in Pennsylvania, would change that by expanding the technology to local departments as other states across the country have already done.
Departments such as Northern York County Regional Police rely instead on technology called NRAD (a laser device that sits 3 feet apart on the road) or VASCAR/VSPEC (which averages rates between two white lines). NRAD requires two officers. VASCAR/VSPEC requires one person.
"They (the driver) could be doing 100 mph up there and be doing 5 mph here. And, they might not be speeding. But, they were doing 100 up there," said Sgt. Becker about one drawback of VASCAR/VSPEC technology and the fact that it is based on an average speed.
Radar gun technology, meantime, is credited by officers as being more reliable as it can tell police in an instant if a driver is speeding. It is also credited with being more versatile to move from community to community whereas systems such as NRAD require setup. Radar guns also only require one person to run the technology, reducing the manpower assigned to speed enforcement.
Most recently, the bill to expand radar guns to municipal police passed the PA Senate.
Listen as Northern York County Regional Police describe the difference between radar gun technology and the current technology they are allowed to use in PA:
Critics of the measure have called it a 'money grab' and have expressed worry that departments could use the devices to balance their budgets by issuing more tickets to drivers.
Hear from one of the critics of the bill, the National Motorists Association:
In response, the bill includes the following provisions:
- The device can't be used to time the speed of vehicles within 500 feet after a speed limit sign indicating a decrease of speed
- No driver can be convicted on evidence obtained through the use of the device in an area where the legal speed limit is less than 55mph if the speed recorded is less than 10 mph in excess of the legal speed limit.
- In high speed areas, like interstates, no driver can be convicted on evidence obtained through the use of the device unless the speed recorded is 6 or more miles per hour in excess of the legal speed limit
The protections go away, however, if a speeder is caught in a school or construction zone.
The bill also tackles the issue of revenue by stating:
- The primary use of the device is for traffic safety purposes
- If a departments share of revenue generated from speed enforcement citations by a device exceeds 10% of the total political subdivisions budget, the excess sum shall be remitted to the Department of Revenue Treasury Department. The bill notes those funds will be deposited into the Highway Safety Cadet Training Restricted Receipts Fund account. The fund is used for the purpose of recruiting, training or equipping Pennsylvania State Police Cadets