Fact Finders: What are the rules for officers when they shoot radar?

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - A recent survey from cars.com found 80% of Thanksgiving travelers will drive to their destination this upcoming holiday. And we always hear about increased speed enforcement around a holiday. So, our viewer Amanda wants to know; “Are police allowed to sit off in parking lots or the side of the road at night with their lights off and use their radar guns? I was always told they had to at least have their parking lights on.”

Every driver has seen a deputy, an officer, or a highway patrol trooper working speed enforcement. Law enforcement can do this on the side of the road, in the median, or a parking lot. The state law says the posted speed limit is the legal speed limit. And catching you speeding is not entrapment.

“It’s just not the case at all because they’re not making anyone speed they’re not making anyone run a red light, there just monitoring so that when it happens, they are going to issue a ticket and do their traffic control duties,” explained Grant Rahmeyer of Rah Law. “Which is their job.”

“The only thing that could regulate that would be like the department if a police department had its own policy restricting the police officers or making them have their lights on while they’re running radar,” offered Lt. Jeremy Anderson of the Springfield Police Department. “But here at Springfield, we do not have that policy.”

Nixa Police tell me they have a policy for officer safety. If the officer is sitting on the shoulder of a road running radar in the dark, Nixa Police officers should have their parking lights on. This only applies to the shoulder of the roadway. The department added, “there is nothing required by law or policy that would prevent an officer from sitting in the parking lot without lights on whether it be running radar, working on reports, taking a break, making phone calls, or simply being visible to reduce traffic crashes and crime.”

Coming back to the viewer’s question, Are police allowed to sit off in parking lots or the side of the road at night with their lights off and use their radar guns? The answer is YES – unless an individual department’s policy says otherwise.

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