For years now we have defended people who have been charged with RADAR speeding violations in Connecticut.  But sometimes, not everyone wants to spend the money on an attorney. For those people, we are sharing this – our guide to cross examination of a Radar officer. These may not be all the questions you need to ask – but it is a good start for formulating your cross examination.

If you have more questions, please fee free to contact us at Mr. Speeding Ticket. We are always here to help.

Radar Cross Examination Questions

Calibration

1. What radar unit were you operating that day?
2. Was it a stationary or mobile radar unit?
3. If stationary, was it hand-held or mounted in the vehicle?
4. What model and serial number?
5. Are you trained or certified in its operation?
6. Is there a certificate from the radar unit’s last re-certification?
7. How long ago was it re-certified?

Tuning Fork(s)

1. Did you perform an external verification of the radar using a tuning fork(s)?
2. What is the serial number of the tuning fork(s)?
3. What value(s) is it supposed to produce when it is struck?
4. What value did it actually produce when you verified the radar?
5. How long has it last been since the tuning fork was re-certified?
6. Is there a certificate stating its verification?
7. Is it still free from dings or dents that would otherwise affect its accuracy?
8. What sort of surface did you strike it on to produce the vibrational frequency?
   1. Does this surface damage the fork? (Too hard)
   2. Does this surface create the proper vibration to perform an adequate verification test? (Too soft)

Internal Tests

1. Did you perform an internal standards check on it at the beginning of the shift?
   1. What values were tested?
   2. What were the results?
2. Did you do these internal and external checks periodically on the unit during the day?
3. Did you do these internal and external checks at the end of the day?
   1. What were the results?
4. Do you have any way of verifying the accuracy of the radar for that day?

Operation

1. How far away from the target vehicle were you when you first observed it?
2. How many other vehicles were around that vehicle?
3. Were there any larger vehicles, or smaller faster vehicles in the vicinity that may have been the reflective source of the radar reading?
   1. How can you be sure?
4. If there were other vehicles, what was the relative position of the target vehicle to these other vehicles? First in line? Middle of the pack? Last away? Lone vehicle?
5. Was the target vehicle coming towards your position, or away from your position?
6. Is this a straight or curved section of road?
   1. Is it an inside curve, or an outside curve?
7. Which lane was the target vehicle in?
8. What angle of onset were you when you first started the reading?
9. Did you experience any cosine error in obtaining the reading?
10. Did you hold the radar gun stationary, or did you pan and follow the target vehicle?
11. How long did it take to lock onto the target?
12. Was this faster or longer than it normally takes to lock onto a moving target?
13. Did you lock onto this vehicle, or another smaller faster vehicle, or larger vehicle?
    1. How can you be sure?
14. Was your radar measurement locked, or merely observed?
15. Are you able to verify the reading?
16. Have you operated radar in that area previously?
17. Have you noticed any dead-spots in radar reception in that area?
18. Any areas of known interference?
19. Have you noticed any areas of false-positive reception?
20. Did you follow the target vehicle, tracking with your speedometer?
21. Is the speedometer certified?
    1. When was it last verified?
22. How long did you track the target vehicle?
    1. For what distance?
    2. What was the physical distance between the target vehicle and your patrol car?
23. Did this distance stay even for the entire time you tracked the target vehicle?
24. Did you confirm a followed estimate with a mobile radar reading?

These are a sample cross examination of a Radar officer and can be a good starting point for questions you might want to ask – but they should never take the place of consulting with an attorney or having a trained attorney handle your case!