ustin
retetions
tetks about
I
race
ByU Lathrop
Capital News Service
LANSING - Secretary of
State Richar H. Austin said
e best way 0 improve ce
relations is to reduce the
damage that �as creates. He
said thi wo 1d make more
sense than . to CODlp etely
bi .
de ec or
not war h th
tz
C4pitaJ News Service
LANSI G- You know the
- feeling. ,
You're driving oog one of
the e's m [or high ys, en­
joying the sunny day and paying
little heed to your speedometer.
After II, your trusty radar
detector lets you know when the
State Police' are nearby. You're
free as a bird, right?
Wrong. says Col. Rich D vis,
directo of the Michigan St te
Police. Driver who spend
hundreds of dollars on devices
to tr or b ock radar still are
j as likely to be pulled over
for speeding and certainly won't
merit the courtesy of a verbal
waJrn·ma. be warned last week.
"We ve good idea how
f SOmeoDC' driving just by
eyeballing them: Davis said.
"that the way we all did it
before we had radar, so we're
pretty ccurate.·
DESPITE GOV. JAMES
Blanchard' st unch opposition
to r detectors and an un-
1_:cesSlUlproposal to b them
e t te, m ny Michigan
c ens don't mind pe ding
anywher� from $100 to S600 to
own ODe. In ddition, the newly
developed ·Stealth Car Dr .•
designed to deflect police r dar
before a driver' peed' clock­
ed, more 500 and
does ot fit all cat mode .
-Are r dar-fooling device
orth the money s ved by
• ..1:_8 • _1.._ ?
avol�b� •.
Not at all, Col. Davis said.
·Our offices play games on
those radar detectors," Davis
said. Sometimes they turn the
radar off and. quickly p it
ba 0 n someone speeds
by Their detectors squawk
t en, but it's too late. We've 80t
the .
"And if you're pulled over
with a adar detector, your
chances of getting off with a
warning aren't so good," he said.
I 1 ,THE St te Police
made 390,590 traffic arrests, in­
eluding 278,328 tops for w­
ardo driving. a category that
includes speeding. Proceed
from speeding tickets arc used
for the state's general horaries
fund. .
"The whole qUesb9n of radar
detectors comes down to an
ethical situation," Da· said.
"This may seem like simplistic
reasoning. but it's j another
way people try to figure out h
to circumvent the la . We're
here to help the public, not too
cause the public prob1ems."
Other rumored methods 0
radar-fooling. such 81 lining a
car's hubcaps wi�h �uminum -
foil, are more trouble than
they're orth, Davis . d.
"If thing like that really
orked, there'd be a lot fewer
driver' wasting their money on
r dar detectors," e id, "Be-
ides, we'd find y to clock
the cars speed regardl .•
Radar detector cQme in all
pes, � and complextities.
They appeal to buyers probably
because they seem like a legal
alternative to speeding tickets,
said Tom B1y, an employee at a
Lansing Radio Shack.
·PEOPLE FIGURE
THEY'RE okay legally because
you can buy them in a store," Bly
. d, estimating between 10 and
20 are old each wee at
franchise. -
"H you feel hKe you just can't
slow or you're always in a hurry,
a radat detector might be some-
Police awai
, Lat p
Cllpillll News Service'
LANSING - The James
Bond-type device for tracing a
Ie� automobile may be in use
sometime this month, said Col.
Rich Davis, director of the
Michigan State Police.
The blackboard eraser-size
tr cing device, named Lojack, is
a miniature tr nsceiver that
sends twO- y radiowave sig­
nals . installed in one of 30
places on a vehicle.
When the car is stolen, the'
er reports the theft to the
police ho ctivate the device
locate the car using ignals of
light and sound displayed on
screens in police car .
Davis said the ignal the
device sends out i reasonable
cause to search and ize the
. I
ddition to the
dar-foolers is
ra, invented by
Puller, who
uardian inter­
dCaCbY:lI,e a car' igni­
driver cannot
reathalyz.er.
made of the
rbing carbon
enough to be mentioned," Aus­
tin said.
Austin said there's been a
moderate of progress in the so­
cial advancement of Africans
since the 1970s.
I Pormer President Ronald
Reagan 't ry enthusiastic
about making those improve­
ments, Austin said.
• A commitment from every
level of government will be
necesary to change things,"
Austin id,
Austi w elected in 1970
and re-e ected four times since
Michi 's secretary of state is
elected every four year . The
next ele tion is in November
and wh Ie Au tin, 76, isn't
making i official yet, he said he
may run again.
Some responsibilities of the
ffice include: State supervisor
and coordinator of elections;
licensing auto dealers; nd
licensing drivers.
ay police
fibers as tho e used in the
Stealth bomber, forces an of­
ficer to wait until the car is close
before getting a peed reading.
Driver equipped with the car
bra and a radar detector hould
have time to slo before they
are clocked, Puller said.
"The government that
technology to pull revenue 0 t
of the public, and I don't think
that's fair un) we a right
to defend our elves," Fuller
said.
d-type
SGT.A D EW
VERP C 0 the State
Police post in La r said he's
been impresse with t e
demonstrations he seen.
"It's like a J me Bond
sevice," Verplanck said. ·And it
rands the car,"
Hood said if eone tried
to jam the signal, the police
could hone in on the frequency
and catch the people 0 were
doing it.
Sometimes car thieves will
park the - stolen car for a few
days to let it "cool down" and to
watch and see if it' recovered
by' police, aid Capt� Gene
Hoekwater, execu . ve division
comm�nding offi er of the
Co
