QUOTE (chris93 @ Sun, 8 Nov 2015 - 16:16)
1. How is it easy? I`ll presume that the officer has been on a course and had training and will have a certificate that will have his accuracy on it? The ultralytes are fairly heavy devices and (again IMHO) it would take 2-3 seconds for him to raise the gun, steady it, and then get a fix. To get an immediate reading would suggest that the gun was already in position and that he was pointing it at every vehicle.
As it stands, it goes to trial in 3 weeks time, and yes I an aware of the financial penalties if I was found guilty.
From my experience of the Ultralyte training regular police officers have, it doesn't consist of very much, simply because it is a point, aim, steady, pull the trigger affair. It isn't a vastly complex classroom based process that requires months of self-denial whilst skills are honed.
Five minutes would explain the basics, what the buttons do and how you get the thing to produce a speed reading. The important bit of determining if a vehicle is speeding, or 'forming the opinion', can only be learnt 'on the job' - you think 'I reckon that car is doing 36mph' - so you ping it with the laser and it instantly tells you how accurate your judgement was. Doing this over and over and over again is the bit that allows you to develop the ability to a high degree. The more you do it, the better you become at judging speed. The ability to continually corroborate your opinion is the key learning aid.
If every vehicle is pinged, the chances are they're simply not very good at estimating speed, not that they 'fishing'. An experienced LTI/Pro Laser user will know which vehicles are speeding and which that aren't - it's one of those Catch-22 scenarios, you need to ping a lot of vehicles to get to the point where you only target the ones that require targeting.
There is no value pinging vehicles you know aren't speeding.
Ultralytes are not fairly heavy, used in conjunction with the retractable stock, they are extremely user-friendly.