Police Handheld Speed gun

[spaced]

Everyone knows that sometimes the police just plot themselves on a road, where people speed, stand there and point there speed gun at you.

What I want to know is, if you are speeding, will they stop you or can they get your reg and speed and send you a ticket just by using the gun?

I have been told that if you dont get stopped then you were not speeding. If you were they usually signal to you to pull over.

[Ethel]

What a nonsense. It is quite possible that the first thing you'll know about it is the letter through the door.

If they had to stop the speeder, the catchment would be a lot less - and would take up a lot of manpower and time.

[spaced]

this is your personal opinion. I need facts to prove my friend wrong, and that HANDHELD cameras can take reg details from a vehicle at night.

So why stop the odd person? Why that person and not someone else???

Facts

[Ethel]

This woman wasn't stopped when she drove past hand held guns three times:

http://www.radar-detectors.co.uk/news_mother_c aught_speeding_three_times_in_24_minutes.asp

And this:

The prosecution may obtain a conviction by producing in evidence photographs taken from speed cameras. There is no requirement that such photos have any other evidence to back them up. If no photo is available then the evidence to convict you must come from at least two different sources, although one of these may be mechanical such as the police car's speedometer/radar gun/VASCAR. Under s20 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act (as amended by s23 of the Road Traffic Act 1991) where a radar device is used the police merely need to provide a record produced by the prescribed device AND (in the same or a separate document) a certificate as to the circumstances in which the record was produced, signed by constable or authorised person

[NORMANTHEDOG]

usually there are 2 or 3 policeman on a hand held speedgun exersize,the policeman with the gun is about 200 yds up the road checking speeds,if a car needs stopping,it is radioed to the other officers,who then stop the cars,a handheld gun does not take a reg no.just the speed.

[CheekyChops]

I got zapped by a handheld speed gun, didn't get stopped but did get fined!

[Buenchico]

As others have indicated, there is no requirement for a police officer, with a handheld speed gun, to stop a motorist in order to issue a 'ticket'.

The police often used to base themselves, with speed guns, outside my late father's house. On a sunny day he'd sometimes wander out to chat to them. They told him that they would occasionally stop a driver if they only wanted to warn him (rather than issue a 'ticket') or if they thought that his speed presented an immediate risk to other road users. (In particular, they would stop speeding drivers around times when children were going to or from school).

However, they generally preferred not to stop speeding motorists because, while speaking to motorist A, speeding motorists B, C, D and E might go by without being caught. There could also be times when, for their own safety, they deemed it unwise to step out in front of a speeding car.

Chris

[spaced]

ok, so how does it obtain your reg at night from a distance?

[furrycheeky]

Given you drive past them, your plates are lit up at the back.

[Compostella]

I was always under the impression that if they had a handheld laser, then they had to stop you there and then as they would only have the lasergun readout display as evidence of you speeding.