License Plate Cover (Photo Traffic Camera Blocker)?

[BASS]

Does anyone know if that clear license plate cover actually makes your plates invisible to the traffic photo cameras?? I forgot the exact name of it, but I think it was $40 or something. I also seen that PhotoBlocker spray in advertisements, but I would figure that spray would eventually wear out in time...

 

[jurassic five 7]

I'm pretty sure the plastic covers are worthless. Why even bother, they look stupid anyways.

Just like radar detectors, they will always advance in ways to catch you. Like the gun they can shoot and it will get your speed, with out your detector to go off.

 

[2QUIK6]

Just like radar detectors, they will always advance in ways to catch you. Like the gun they can shoot and it will get your speed, with out your detector to go off.

That's a laser gun, shoot a straight beam of light. At 500ft, the beam gets about 3-5ft wide depending on moisture in the air. Put the car you want in the cross hair sight and push the button and get speed and distance away instantly.
If you have a real good laser detector, it may tell you in advance if they hit the car next to you or in front of you with it, or it will tell you your about to get pulled over.
I did some testing with one of the first laser detectors with the Ft. Worth Police back over 10 years ago ..more like 13 years ago when the guns first came about. Since the gun has a 3in diameter receptor, better detectors could be made but they would be alot larger than todays detector....cause lots of that 3-5ft beam gets scattered but it will take a larger optic to pick it up.
Another option is to put flat black plates over your headlights and don't have a front license plate, thats the 2 key things that reflect the light back to the gun/receptor....or have a car with pop up headligths and paint it flat black. Glossy paint will reflect a signal but not very well, you have to get pretty close.

On the plate thing...with all the cities around here getting red light camera's, I'm thinking of devising a flip plate, just push a button and a your plate flips over or a blank plate drops down in front of it...hehe And I never use a front license plate anyway.

 

[jurassic five 7]

Yes, the LIDAR gun. I couldnt think of what it is at first.

Either way, i dont see a purpose to radar detectors....some days i'd like to have one, but then again i think they look stupid, and many officers say they will 100% give you a ticket if you have a radar detector and you're caught for speeding.


Not trying to stir the thread from the original post.

-Adam

 

[2QUIK6]

....some days i'd like to have one, but then again i think they look stupid, and many officers say they will 100% give you a ticket if you have a radar detector and you're caught for speeding.

Yep, some will do that. Mine is located above the rear view mirror so you can't see it just standing beside the car.
I'm sure that license plate reflector will have the same effect with police and you can't hide that, so thats something to consider.

My radar detector has paid for itself many times over as the police using laser are still only a small percentage so it has saved me from all the KA band radar as that is the perferred method due to cost...
And generally cops wants to just park and leave the gun on all the time and just look at the dash for your speed, takes alittle more effort to hold up the lidar gun and pull the trigger on everycar, so I count on a little lazyiness there.
Also, the lidar can't go thru the cop car windshield so they have to get out of the car or park long ways so they are obvious to spot if you keep your eyes open and pay attention..or they are standing on top of bridges, another dead giveaway from quit a distance.

That being said, I've been stopped a number of times without receiving a ticket with the radar detector up before I moved it up to the mirror.

 

[TurboDave]

Does anyone know if that clear license plate cover actually makes your plates invisible to the traffic photo cameras?? I forgot the exact name of it, but I think it was $40 or something. I also seen that PhotoBlocker spray in advertisements, but I would figure that spray would eventually wear out in time...

Funny you should ask that. They've just started writing tickets for those clear covers in the Knoxville area. They do interfere with the camaras. I guess it has something to do with the glare they create when the camara flash fires.
Anyway, why bother, IMHO they look so gay.

 

[GregInAtl]

I know someone w/ the photo enforcment tag cover blocker thing.... Its like a hologram picture. Straight ahead its clear, any to the side or above and it not legible at all. The prob is its SO obvious. He finally got a ticket for it because the tag is state property in GA, and anything that, changes, blocks, or hinders is eligable for citation, up to tag revokation.

Just quit runnin red lights, thats the best solution.

 

[BASS]

Hmm, yeah, the cover would look dumb, but I was just wondering if they actually work (and I guess they do). I never run red lights, but when we go through the toll booths here in NJ (especially the parkway), sometimes the toll thingy doesnt work even after putting the correct amount of money in the toll. I was just curious if this cover would screw up the camera that is at these tolls...OR, to be devious, just go through the EZ-pass side and not worry about the toll .

In terms of radar detectors, they really dont work if the cop is using instant-on radar (especially if there is no one in front of you that the cop may shoot first). Oh, and 90% of the cops on our parkway use laser guns instead of plain-old radar anyways, so there really is no hope (unless you get one of those $2,500 laser gun jammers, not the crappy ones listed in back of the car magazines)...

 

[galoush]

In NY the plastic covers even clear are tecnically illegal . Get a clear cover go out with a camera with a flash on and snap a pic then youll see .

 

[2QUIK6]

In terms of radar detectors, they really dont work if the cop is using instant-on radar (especially if there is no one in front of you that the cop may shoot first).

Exactly to my point eariler about the lazy cops not wanting to hold the gun up constantly. I also can't tell you how many times I've topped a hill and they are using instant on, but I spot them and brake before they can lift the gun up to clock me as my detector tells me exactly when they clock me...but I'm always looking for cops and other idiots instead of having a cell phone to my ear like 90% of the folks on the highway.
I have been pulled over on such an occassion and all the cop knew was that I braked enough to dip the front of the car down, I knew he didn't clock me before I had slowed. He tried to get me to admit/confess to what speed I was going but didn't....only got a warning.

 

[dgreen1069]

Yep, some will do that. Mine is located above the rear view mirror so you can't see it just standing beside the car.
I'm sure that license plate reflector will have the same effect with police and you can't hide that, so thats something to consider.

My radar detector has paid for itself many times over as the police using laser are still only a small percentage so it has saved me from all the KA band radar as that is the perferred method due to cost...
And generally cops wants to just park and leave the gun on all the time and just look at the dash for your speed, takes alittle more effort to hold up the lidar gun and pull the trigger on everycar, so I count on a little lazyiness there.
Also, the lidar can't go thru the cop car windshield so they have to get out of the car or park long ways so they are obvious to spot if you keep your eyes open and pay attention..or they are standing on top of bridges, another dead giveaway from quit a distance.

That being said, I've been stopped a number of times without receiving a ticket with the radar detector up before I moved it up to the mirror.

Lidar works through windshields just fine.

 

[2QUIK6]

Lidar works through windshields just fine.

The beams reflect right off of angled windows such as the front and rear just like glare. Lidar is no different than regular light in that respect. Straight from lidar training material 13 years ago unless light has changed how it reflects. Why do you think they are always standing outside their car using lidar on the side of the freeway?

 

[dgreen1069]

I got my Lidar certification about 6 years ago when my department received our first batch of Lidars. I got certified on Radar about 11 years ago. I have used both extensively and can assure you they both work through glass. When we first started using the Lidars, we were required to check them against the calibrated speedometers in our cruisers. That required us to aim the Lidar at a stationary object (like a road sign) while we drove at measured speeds. We stopped doing that because it was not required by the state and it was dangerous as hell.

 

[dgreen1069]

The beams reflect right off of angled windows such as the front and rear just like glare. Lidar is no different than regular light in that respect. Straight from lidar training material 13 years ago unless light has changed how it reflects. Why do you think they are always standing outside their car using lidar on the side of the freeway?

Most light travels through glass....if it didn't, you wouldn't be able to see anything.

As far as standing outside the car to use Lidar, you're right....it is more common. It is far more efficient to stand on the side of a road and flag down speeders than to set the cruiser in a good spot, pick out individual speeders, give chase, then drive back to your original spot to set up again. A stationary officer can write a lot more violators than someone who is stuck inside their cruiser.

 

[2QUIK6]

Just going on what my officer friend was instructed to do 13 years ago as he was the first to be cert on lidar for FTWPD. And still to this day, officers are outside the car here using lidar, not to stop you without giving chase, they clock, hop in the car and chase you down. See them almost daily in the median with driver door open and they're crouched down in the door between the car and the median barrier or standing out beside the car.
Yes light travels thru glass, but it also reflects much of it off the glass when at at angle, otherwise you'd get sunburned in you r car as much of the UV and the radiant energy is reflected and thats what the receptor reads is the radiant energy. I've studied optics and laser light reflectivity in a lab and know exactly how it behaves.
I'm sure the lidars have come a ways in the past 10 years and probably are much more sensitive than they were when they first came out and can detect the smaller amounts penetrating the glass, but appearently FTWPD is still using the original guns as I never seen them using lidar thru the car glass.

 

[corsair231]

NC-SHP sometimes uses Vascar (sp?). It is a timing system. They take a measurement from between two stationary objects, signs, hydrants, pavement markings, etc. Divide the distance with the time it takes to cover the distance and get your speed. No warning at all from lasers or radar. You look up and they are in your mirror with the blue light on.

 

[V6DVette]

NC-SHP sometimes uses Vascar (sp?). It is a timing system. They take a measurement from between two stationary objects, signs, hydrants, pavement markings, etc. Divide the distance with the time it takes to cover the distance and get your speed. No warning at all from lasers or radar. You look up and they are in your mirror with the blue light on.

I'm suprised they still use Vascar. Heres an interesting article. I thought it was stopped being used years ago because of the reaction time thing.
Ticketed for Speeding: Problems with VASCAR

 

[Madcat455]

NC-SHP sometimes uses Vascar (sp?). It is a timing system. They take a measurement from between two stationary objects, signs, hydrants, pavement markings, etc. Divide the distance with the time it takes to cover the distance and get your speed. No warning at all from lasers or radar. You look up and they are in your mirror with the blue light on.

YEP.. like that here in FL too, little Cesnas (sp?) fly overhead, they have white strips randomly painted on roads (measured between), they'll start the timer when you cross the first, stop at the second.

Only notification is the white strip of paint and a little sign "Speed limit enforced by aircraft".

Saw a sting once... crossed the first, then the second line... after a bend in the road, there were 15 cruisers... 7 occupied, the rest waiting for the vehicle description from the plane

I think Motorcycle cops are the sneekiest though, them little F'rs can hide anywhere.

 

[2QUIK6]

And if you get clocked by one standing on top of a bridge, if no one's behind you, immediately pull over and slam on the brakes on the shoulder, try to stop before rolling too far past the bridge..if needed back up and get under the bridge...now for them to get to you, they must go down to the next exit and circle around if there's a highway barrier...sit there a few minutes, get out of the car, look under it for "whatever" was stuck under there causing you to stop abruptly...then take off. Chances are, you already diverted them since they never saw you go past where all the chasers were parked. If your under the bridge, the cop on top can't spot you.

 

[SVORay]

There is a device you can buy or build that would eliminate the fear or Cameras. I'm really not up on the terms or techonology. Anyhow, It' uses a specail type of glass with electricity. The glass tints black with a flip of a switch making it impossible to read the plate. I've seen this done on those gumble racers. Anyways, I would bite the bullet and just pay the toll fee. As for raidar detectors. It's getting harder to evade cops. They started hiding behind bushes here in my small town. Then on the interstate and local hwys, they hide behind some bridge/over pass. So you want see or detect them until It's to late. There is a way to get around this but I don't openly discuss my hwy tactics. Now a detector still works, I'm not saying it doesn't. You just can't blindly trust it and not pay attention to whats going on around you either. If you do this, you will most likely find some colorful lightning in your review. keep in mind cops really don't like detectors...so most likely you'r be issues a ticket if they spot you with one. I've actually got a few warnnings with my detector but I think God was watching out for me. Now they do happen to make a detector that installs into your dash and is almost impossible to detect by eye. I'm sure a cop will know by his Raider detector or what ever it's called. So he may not find it, but he may know you or someone around has one.