Questions for CHP regarding LIDAR

[viras]

CHP Officers, I have a couple of questions regarding LIDAR:

1) How often is a LIDAR unit supposed to be calibrated? Is there any uniform departmental conformity regarding how often it is supposed to be calibrated, or is it different between CHP offices? Is there any documentation available to the public regarding this?

2) How often is a LIDAR unit supposed to be certified by the IACP LIDAR testing laboratory? Once a year, once every 2 years, etc? Is there any documentation available to the public regarding this?

3) How often are LIDAR operators supposed to be certified and/or re-certified to operate a LIDAR unit? If they obtained a certification of attainment as a LIDAR operator in 2007, are they required to take a re-certification every year, two years, etc? Or does the one certificate count for the life of the LIDAR unit they were certified on? Is there any documentation available to the public regarding this?

Thanks for your time!

~V~

[nagorb]

tag

[retired]

I'm not sure if there are any active or retired CHP officers on this site. We do have an expert retired CHP officer, but he hasn't been on the site since Dec.

You may have to contact the CHP directly if you need the info from them otherwise active leos here will only have info for their depts. We'll just wait and see what develops I guess.

[12gauge12]

looks like you got a ticket

[jmzhwells]

Take ur lumps!!

[viras]

I'm not sure if there are any active or retired CHP officers on this site. We do have an expert retired CHP officer, but he hasn't been on the site since Dec.

You may have to contact the CHP directly if you need the info from them otherwise active leos here will only have info for their depts. We'll just wait and see what develops I guess.

Thank you sir.

I have tried to contact CHP directly and received differing answers, so I posted this in hopes of finding a solid answer.

[Desert Dude]

CHP Officers, I have a couple of questions regarding LIDAR:

1) How often is a LIDAR unit supposed to be calibrated? Is there any uniform departmental conformity regarding how often it is supposed to be calibrated, or is it different between CHP offices? Is there any documentation available to the public regarding this?

2) How often is a LIDAR unit supposed to be certified by the IACP LIDAR testing laboratory? Once a year, once every 2 years, etc? Is there any documentation available to the public regarding this?

3) How often are LIDAR operators supposed to be certified and/or re-certified to operate a LIDAR unit? If they obtained a certification of attainment as a LIDAR operator in 2007, are they required to take a re-certification every year, two years, etc? Or does the one certificate count for the life of the LIDAR unit they were certified on? Is there any documentation available to the public regarding this?

Thanks for your time!

~V~

I'm sorry, but what is LIDAR?

Thanks

[PolishMike]

Thanks, you're a lot of help!

Are your googles broken?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR

[Desert Dude]

Are your googles broken?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR

Funny that you mention that! I just did a search on it. Seems our local LEO's are using it. It sure looks like a good thing for all of us the road. I did not see where special treatment was required once the unit was put into use. Beyond normal maint. it looks fine. Wikipedia gives a real good explaination.

I would much rather a traffic officer have the ability to single out a specific car than just 'sweep' the traffic line.

[CSDGuy]

I'm not a LEO... but I do know the basics of how LIDAR works.

The best thing about LIDAR units is that the beam stays pretty tight so that the operator can pick out a single vehicle at a relatively long distance. With Radar units, the beam gets to be quite large, and the unit may lock up on a target with a "larger" return and mask a smaller target's return. If they're lined up right, the operator may have difficulty figuring out which target is actually going faster...Which is why they're supposed to visually estimate the speed of the target first and use the radar for confirmation. Radar and LIDAR are both very, very accurate in determining speeds. LIDAR is just MUCH more specific about the target.

Because of the specificity, if your Radar/LIDAR detector goes off with a LIDAR alert... you just got lased... and it's too late, unless you were right in-line with a target that got lased.

[BigDogatPlay]

It's not CHP, but Garden Grove PD's General Orders have information on certification and calibration. They base their standard on NHTSA / USDOT and the International Association of Chiefs of Police guidelines. If I can search up the NHTSA standard I'll post a link.

Gotta love a city so forthcoming that it web publishes it's GO book.