Hollister
– Hollister-Gilroy area California Highway Patrol officers hope
new technology will allow them to catch speeders with laser
precision.
Hollister – Hollister-Gilroy area California Highway Patrol officers hope new technology will allow them to catch speeders with laser precision.
The CHP unit has been using lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, for about a month, said CHP public information officer Chris Armstrong. While mounted radar units will still be in use, the CHP hopes lidar will provide officers with a more accurate tool for enforcing speed limits, Armstrong said.
“It’s just another weapon to make sure that our tickets are accurate,” Armstrong said.
Lidar uses laser light to pinpoint a vehicle to calculate its speed, Armstrong said. Radar uses radio waves, which return the speed of the closest object, then the fastest object and then the largest object, Armstrong said. With radar, officers can have difficulty confirming a specific driver’s speed in a group of vehicles, Armstrong said.
Both radar and lidar are used to confirm an officer’s initial visual estimation of a vehicle’s speed, Armstrong said. He said CHP officers are trained to estimate a vehicle’s speed within five miles per hour.
Although the manufacturer states lidar has a range up to 4,500 feet, the practical range for both radar and lidar is 2,500 feet, Armstrong said.
“Even with the naked eye it’s going to be hard to judge,” Armstrong said of the suggested range close to a mile.
The one drawback to Lidar, as opposed to mounted radar units, is that the officer has to be stationary, Armstrong said. That means officers must park on the side of the roadway to target vehicles with lidar, he said.
But drivers will not see the red dot commonly associated with laser pointers beaming from the CHP’s new guns.
“It’s a frequency that is lower than visibility,” Armstrong said.
The Hollister-Gilroy CHP now has three lidar guns available for officers to check out for use in both San Benito and Santa Clara counties, he said.
Armstrong said the goal of using lidar is not to issue more tickets.
“Our goal in all our education and all our enforcement duties is to save the lives of Californians,” Armstrong said.
The CHP has 240 lidar guns in use throughout the state, Armstrong said. The CHP began using lidar elsewhere in California about a year ago, he said.
Some CHP area units, including San Jose, are using five-officer teams armed with lidar guns to enforce speed limits, Armstrong said. The Hollister-Gilroy office is not targeting specific offenses or specific roadways, he said.
And so far, the CHP is the only local law enforcement agency using lidar guns.
Officer Rosie Betanio, spokeswoman for the Hollister Police Department, said the city police department does not specifically patrol for traffic violations. Hollister police officers issue speeding citations between calls, she said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
