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Car owners guide to: Car Accessories > Radar Detectors
 The current penalties for speeding on UK roads are:
- A minimum fixed penalty fine of £60 and 3 points on the driver's licence.
- A potential court fine of, on average, around £130 and 3-6 points on the licence.
- A driver accumulating 12 points on their licence within 3 years will receive a
minimum 6 month ban.
- Insurance premiums can increase for drivers with multiple speeding fines.
Current UK law allows the use of a Speed Camera Detector to
provide warnings of both fixed and mobile speed camera locations.
However, the Government continues to review detector technologies
in the UK and has been talking up a ban of certain types.
Devices that warn the motorist by actively detecting a camera ahead
(speed camera detectors, but not GPS mapping devices)
could be made illegal if measures proposed in the Road Safety Act 2006
pass into law. The 2005 Road Safety Bill stated that "Devices which interfere
with or detect the proper functioning of such cameras have only one purpose: to
tell drivers when they can break speed limits and get away with
it. This is unacceptable, it prevents the police from carrying out
their duties, and is a danger to other law-abiding road users.
"The Government will not be prohibiting those devices that
rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to warn drivers
of published camera sites or posted speed limits, as these compliment
the Government's policy to ensure that camera sites are visible
and conspicuous to drivers, and so help deter excessive and inappropriate
speeds on the roads. However, the provisions of the Bill mean it
will be possible to prohibit a vehicle being fitted with, or a person
using a vehicle carrying 'speed assessment equipment detection devices'
under the Construction and Use Regulations (SI 1986/1078)."
The key issue here is that active detectors allow drivers to ignore
speed cameras that are inactive at the time, whereas GPS navigation
mapping merely makes drivers aware of speed camera locations and
have no way of checking whether they are currently active or not.
To the best of our current knowledge (2009), the purchase and installation of
a Radar or Laser detector is legal, and its use also legal following a judgement of
the Queens Bench Divisional Court on 29 January 1998. This looked at the
legality of the devices from the point of view of their wireless transmission.
The Court concluded that the radar transmission did not contravene regulations
of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, or as amended by the Post Office Act 1969.
It is prudent, however, to make your own judgement or, better still, seek legal advice before
purchasing and operating a speed camera detector, as laws are always open to
interpretation and revision. We will not be held responsible for any prosecutions
resulting from use of any detectors.
It is very important to distinguish between Detectors and Jammers. Radar and
Laser Jammers are prohibited under the Road Safety Act (2006), but even without the
power of this act, the police could well instigate a prosecution on the basis
of obstruction and perversion of the course of justice. This is sufficiently severe
that it could lead to a custodial sentence.
In their defence of detectors as a pro-active aid to driving safety, manufacturers
and installers of the devices point to several research findings. In one research
poll, conducted by MORI in May 2001, the organisation was asked to evaluate the
driving habits, behaviour and accident rates of radar detector users compared with
drivers who did not use a radar detector. This gave the following findings:
- Users claimed to travel 50% further between accidents than non-users.
- 75% of users claimed to be more aware of keeping to the speed limit since they
purchased a detector.
- 60% of users claimed to have become a safer driver since purchasing a radar
detector.
- Radar detector users appeared to have 24% fewer accidents.
- Radar detector users on average drive 73,952 miles further between accidents
than non radar detector users.
We all know that research can be spun to show in favour or against any
particular issue, and thus, generally, only ever gives balance to what might
otherwise become a one-sided argument. What seems clear to us is this:
- that owning a detector should never be seen as having a licence to speed. Speed limits
have been set for the safety of all road users and adhering to set limits is paramount.
- that there is a strong argument that detectors improve awareness of local speed
limits, leading to increased driver alertness to accident black spots.
- that owning a detector is not necessarily a sign that someone intends to drive
over the speed limit, any more than not using one is a sign that the driver will
always drive responsibly.
- that outlawing detectors will not stop those drivers who are intent on speeding
from continuing to do so.
Detecting the Detectors
If legislation banning the use of active speed camera detectors is introduced,
police will clearly need some reliable way of spotting anyone using
these types of devices, and that's not going to be too difficult.
All radio receivers - which is basically what these devices are
- not only pick up radio signals, they also emit them. This means
that any radar detector, whether it has a jammer or not, broadcasts
a tell-tale radio signal whenever it is turned on. By using a high-powered
radio receiver tuned to the frequency of the signals emitted by
radar detectors, the police are able to detect their use.
Passive devices that merely provide updateable mapping, showing
Gatso (fixed camera) locations, do not in general transmit signals and, as
mentioned earlier, the government has made clear that these are considered legal
and an aid to safe driving. Suppliers of detectors are increasingly promoting these
systems in order to reassure buyers that they will not find the equipment illegal to
use in future. However, such systems are only as accurate as the data loaded
into them, and they cannot accurately show the location of portable enforcement
systems (though mapping will often indicate
zones where portable equipment is likely to be in use).
Should I or shouldn't I?
The decision on whether to  buy a camera warning detector must sit with you and you
alone. Until the government passes legislation banning the devices, there
is a strong argument in favour of having one fitted if you spend a fair amount of time
on the road. It can be all too easy to miss speed limit signs when a driver is
concentrating on the traffic and what route to take in an
unfamiliar area.
Several GPS Navigation Systems have the ability to show speed limits on-screen,
and some, including the Clarion MAP680, reinforce this with a spoken warning,
but this data often dates quite quickly as many rural roads are
now being changed from 40 to 30, or even 20 MPH. Devices that are primarily intended
for route guidance tend not to have their databases updated regularly, and so
can become quickly out of date. However, standalone speed warning units and the hybrid devices integrated with Sat-Nav features can have camera location data updated as often as daily if required.
The bottom line is this. Advanced warning of speed restrictions and accident black
spots, whether permanent or temporary, can prevent drivers from inadvertently driving
dangerously. That's in everybody's interest, so if we have technology to help make
driving safer, why would anybody wish to ban it?
- Radar and Laser Detectors are currently legal to buy, install and use on UK roads,
but the provisions of the Road Safety Act (2006) may change this if it
becomes law. As of now (late 2008) those elements of the Act have not passed into
law. However, there have
been reports that some police forces are confiscating legal devices, despite the fact
that the law does not currently give them the power.
- Radar and Laser Jamming Devices should not be installed or used - they should
be considered illegal, whether technically they are or not. There is every chance
the police could bring a succesful prosecution to court.
- Camera locations shown on electronic mapping devices (typically Satellite Navigation
units or hybrid Sat-Nav units where camera location data can be regularly updated,
usually by payment of an annual or monthly fee) are legal to use on UK roads and will
not fall under legislation proposed under the Road Safety Act (2006).
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