Cell phone and radar detector usage... your thoughts?

[BuccaneersFan]

This is kind of a two part question.

Cell phone usage while driving is committed everyday, we all see the campaigns don't text and drive etc. I do have to add, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. My question is can a MOS initiate a traffic stop without actually seeing the phone in use. Some examples I can think of: head tilted down, head tilts down and pops back up every few seconds, eye placement if you're close enough to them etc. Would this be enough to initiate a traffic stop and to cite someone?

How do you guys feel about people who use radar detectors? Again, another pet peeve of mine. Having one of those in my mind just already means that you will,are or going to break the speed restriction is that area. Which is against the law. I know in Virginia and DC radar detectors are illegal, do you guys think this should become more of a nationwide ban? What about jammers? Those are illegal in DC and Oklahoma. If you guys do pull someone over with one, do you take a different approach to them? It always seems that 95% of them are on some crappy civic with a muffler big enough to launch them into orbit, with a vehicle that's essential a high performance riding mower.

Also...do most people not understand what "Yield" means?

[Rettroop]

Radar detectors, easy to defeat if your using your radar unit correctly (on off switch ) and with the advent of the laser even laser detectors are useless. The beam is too narrow and too quick. An associate of mine bought a jammer, so we tested it , it was junk. People with detectors didn't make a difference to me I would cut some slack to most people, if I saw it when you went by and didn't at the stop you got a ticket for sure
I've read that the valentine detector is the best, just before I retired I had a guy doing 98 mph the second burst from the laser said something like 70. I knew he had something and it turned out it was a valentine. He got the full shot

[CruiserClass]

Cell phone use will vary by state. In Indiana you can e-mail and play words with friends, just not text. I would never stop someone even if I saw them typing, because the state law says I can't take your phone to see what you were doing, so how do I prove you were texting and not looking up nearby hippopotamus rescues on Google? Its a stupid law that's unenforceable as written, hence I ignore it.

Radar detectors don't bother me. As stated, if the officer knows what he's doing and can visually estimate speed (ie, doesn't radar every car) its useless. I got you the instant it beeped. Radar detector = no warnings, though. The detector was your warning.

[IAM Rand]

When I would stop a vehicle with a Radar detector I would ask them if it worked. They would say that it worked but, obviously not quickly enough. If you go by your training and estimate a vehicle's speed then activate your radar it is no problem to tag them. They get a false sense of security by having one. It is funny when running radar and you hear the high pitch of the tone suddenly get lower just after you activate and lock their speed. Would love to be a fly in the car when their detector goes crazy and then they seen me.

Then phone thing doesn't bother me. Many people can handle using the phone and driving, others can't. You can only deal with stupid when they break the law.

[ateamer]

Radar detectors are fine with me. They get people to slow down, right? It's also my cinsidered personal opinion that speeding on freeways isn't particularly hazardous and efforts on speed enforcement could be better spent elsewhere.

With regards to stopping people for cell phone violations, reasonable suspicion is required for detention. RS varies with each set of facts, and with each officer's training and experience. It depends on what the officer can articulate.

[Dinosaur32]

In NYS, portable electronic device in your hand is grounds for stop and cite. Happens all day, every day.

[Iowa #1603]

In Iowa ----cell phone usage is legal.......TEXTING is not

However TEXTING is a secondary offense , meaning that it can not be used as PC for a traffic stop.


Radar Detectors are fine......................I might even have one or two in a storage drawer somewhere

[swpacadet]

In PA, like many other states, only texting itself is illegal. I can't see from behind someone if they're texting or browsing some porno website so it doesn't get written. We also can't see the phone so we can't prove what they were doing anyhow. Once they start weaving, not paying attention, etc, we have a friendly one-on-one chat.

Don't care about detectors since only Staties can run radar anyway.

[mdrdep]

Part may depend on if your state classifies traffic violations as civil or criminal. in Cali a traffic violation is still a criminal act. A stop may be based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, so we can stop if we have reason to believe someone is using there phone while driving.

Officers saw defendant parked on the side of the road texting. Five minutes later, he was driving in traffic while leaning and looking down and making movements with his hands for 30 to 40 seconds as if still texting. There was reasonable suspicion of a violation of Vehicle Code section 23123.5. (Corrales (2013) 213 Cal.App.4th 696.)

[LPSS]

In Washington State, cell phone use and texting are both illegal. I write tickets for both every day. Contrary to what some other people on this thread are saying, enforcing a texting law is very easy. If I see someone holding a phone in a common texting manner and their thumb is moving as if typing, I have reasonable suspicion to make a stop and investigate further.

Our state defines texting as reading or sending an electronic text message which is not necessarily limited to, or defined as, an SMS message. Reading Internet pages or Facebook is reading an electronic message containing text as well.

[mdrdep]

There is also case law in Cali that concludes if you're holding a phone in your hand while driving, you're guilty.

[NY2VA]

It always seems that 95% of them are on some crappy civic with a muffler big enough to launch them into orbit, with a vehicle that's essential a high performance riding mower.

I LOL'ed

[SmallCityCop]

In MD it's no hand-held cell phone (talk or text)...

[Viking042900]

I make sure that I can articulate in court that I saw the cell phone or mobile device. Otherwise how do I know they weren't looking down in admiration of their package or something. Now if I see the "look-downs" and then see them go over the line or commit another offence, they're getting stopped.

RADAR detectors don't bother me for the same reasons others have said. Once your detector goes off, it's too late. Folks don't realize how accurate we are with visual speed estimation. I doo like pulling up behind someone at a light who's running a detector and rapidly turning on and off my RADAR and watching their detector light up and screech at them.

[Yankee_1]

I dont mind cell phone usage so I dont write it....unless you are a jerk and earn it.
also radar detectors dont bother me either. I barely see any, not like the 90's. Hell I had one in every car I owned until I became a cop. Holding the phone and talking is not a big deal, I'd rather write the guy who looks like a moron with that stupid ear piece in. but I cant, I hate those things