Reasons for Radar:                                                                                                             

The primary reason for using RADAR is to prevent Accidents. Most people do not realize that by running RADAR it does help to slow people down. Many believe there are quotas and the Towns run Radar to increase their revenue. In this State, all fines either guilty or waived go to the general fund in the State of Maine. Many traffic stops with the use of RADAR result in other summonses and  arrests. These arrests range from traffic warrants, warrants of all types to Drunk Driving, (OUI). In Kittery, all of our Marked units are equipped with Radar. They come in all types and sizes. Here in Kittery, we use the KR-10. It is one of the most widely used Radar Units on the market today.

All of our officers are certified in the use of this resourse and a required to be not only by this department but through the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. Through out the State of Maine, there are many instructors that are assigned this task. We are fortunate to have one here at the Kittery Police Department. We hold training classes here for many departments not only for Radar, but a variety of other topics as well. The use of Radar is taken seriously. It is used most of the time and this allows all officers to be thoroughly familiar with its operation.

Officers a certified every three years in order to use the radar. Many peole ask officers about the  radar detectors and the ability to be undetected. Radar Jammers are out there and they are illegal under the federal statutes. They are required to be licensed and the FCC does not license them. Therefore possession of a radar jammer is a violation. We use a Radar hold button. This simply stops the transmitter from sending out a signal even thought the Radar unit is on. When the officer sees an offending vehicle, he simply releases the radar hold button and instantly the reading appears. Many  times before the radar detector goes off.

The radar unit is sent to the factory annually for calibration checks. All units have tuning forks and they are required to be used on the unit at least once per shift. If any radar unit becomes defective, it is immediately pulled from service and sent back to the factory. Malfunctions very rarely happen and most errors, always go to the benefit of the violators.

One last bit of information is that Officers are not required to Lock in the speed of the violator or are they required to show the display. This is mostly due to safety issues. RADAR is a great tool. It takes the guess work out of catching speeders and it helps not only the Law Enforcement Agency in Accident Prevention, but it helps keep our roads safe.