Learning The Truth About Radar Detectors

I never thought I’d be riding in a police car - or at least never in the front seat - but there I was listening to every work the trooper told me.

Last May, the Washington State Patrol invited me to be a guest rider. I rode with Rod Mittmann, a trooper for 16 years. The first thing I did when I got in the car was go over the waiver I had to sign. It basically said that if I died, the patrol was not liable.

After the waiver was out of the way, Mittmann showed me how to use the radio so I could call for help if he got into an altercation. By this time, I figured the ride-along wasn’t going to be the experience I expected. I thought it was going to be fun, but after the prep by the trooper, I had to admit I was a little scared.

I was on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, and - once we got started - things began to go as I expected. We looked for cars with something wrong with them (expired tabs, studded tires, broken tail lights, speeders, etc.) so we could stop them.

The first guy we stopped was in a truck on Bigelow Gulch. The truck had huge tires and no mud flaps. I thought the truck was cool, Trooper Mittmann thought it was a public hazard.

We ran the guy’s license number through the police computer system. The dispatcher told us the guy had a gun permit and detailed every time he’d been stopped by an officer - even the times he’d only received a warning. Mittmann gave him a written warning that allowed him 15 days to get mud flaps. If stopped after that, he’d probably get a ticket.

Driving on Bigelow Gulch, the trooper showed me how the radar gun worked. It takes about one second to turn it on. That means even if you have the best radar detector money can buy, you should probably try and find someone dumb enough to buy it from you.

“Radar detectors are a huge waste of money,” Mittmann said.

Shortly after showing me how the radar gun worked, we put it into action, stopping a small red car going 13 miles over the speed limit. The excuse was, “I was hurrying home because I don’t feel well” - one I’m sure Mittmann’s never heard before. He asked me what I thought and I told him I wasn’t the cop.

So Mittmann paused and pointed out to me that the girl had only had her license for a month. He wrote out a warning and told me, “Sometimes a warning is more effective than a ticket.” See, there are nice cops out there.

Shortly after this stop, dispatch sent out a report of an injury accident. Officer Mittmann told me to hold on. Tight. We put on the flashing lights and let the sirens blare, traveling across most of the Spokane Valley. This was when it got exciting and made me glad I came along for the ride. We got up to 115 mph on the highway and managed to slow down a little in town.

When we got there, we found there was no injury, so the next step was to clear the road. It took about 45 minutes.

Afterward, we met another trooper for dinner. The restaurant was referred to as 45 - a code used by all the officers. I’d tell you which restaurant it stood for, but then what use would there be for a secret code?

I also got a tour of the State Patrol’s head office and dispatch headquarters out by the Waste-to-Energy Plant. Mittmann showed me around and took me to the “bullpen” where smashed up cars from severe injury accidents and traffic fatalities are kept for evidence.

Mittmann pointed out a car that had been in a fatal accident. It gave me a very eerie feeling, standing next to a car where someone had died. He also pointed out a car that had a smashed out windshield and told me, “That’s what happens when people don’t wear their seat belts.”

The next accident we responded to involved an elderly lady who rear-ended another car. The woman had been drinking all night and was on her way home when she smashed into the back of another car. Trooper Mittmann gave her a breath test and she was well above Washington’s legal limit of .10. She was put in another trooper’s car where she was read her rights and arrested for driving under the influence.

Officer Mittmann stressed that people should slow down and not drink and drive - those are the two biggest factors that contribute to accidents and tickets.

So if you don’t want to come into contact with a state patrolman, don’t speed and don’t drink.