Scrambler Speeds Up Debate on Safety

The nation’s police departments are using ever more sophisticated radars to catch speeders, but motorists have joined the technology race by buying increasingly capable radar detectors, jammers and scramblers to defeat the police.

Among the newest products to hit the mail-order sales catalogues is the Phazer, a so-called radar scrambler produced by the Rocky Mountain Radar Co. The $200 device uses technology that might be appropriate in the cockpit of a jet fighter.

Safety advocates are appalled by the legal sales of more sophisticated devices that can prevent police from enforcing speeding laws, but the fact is, the majority of motorists take huge delight in breaking speed limits.

The California Highway Patrol handed out 997,519 speeding tickets in 1994 on state highways alone. In one of the great understatements of law enforcement, CHP spokeswoman Patricia Ryan said, “People have a tendency to drive a little fast.”

Manufacturers of radar and radar detectors are having a field day. Rocky Mountain Radar sold 30,000 of its scramblers last year and is expecting to sell 150,000 this year. By some industry estimates, about 7% of motorists now have radar detectors, scramblers or jammers.

The Rocky Mountain product represents a big advance in technological sophistication. The company was founded just a few years ago by Mike Churchman, a former designer of military electronic warfare equipment at Texas Instruments.

In the past, detectors would warn drivers if police were using radar, allowing them time to slow down to avoid a ticket. Police responded by buying sensitive instruments that could detect the use of detectors, which in 22 states (but not California) have now become illegal.

The escalation continued with the introduction of radar jammers, devices that blast police radar with electronic signals that overpower the radar’s ability to measure a vehicle’s speed. The jammers are also easy to detect by police, and now several states have outlawed them.

The Phazer, the next step in the technology battle, uses techniques similar to military electronic warfare equipment. It captures the police radar’s signal and then distorts the frequency of the signal before rebroadcasting it.

Police radar is designed to take five to 10 measurements of a vehicle’s speed in about one second. The scrambler sends one signal that tells the radar the car is going 15 m.p.h. and another signal that the car is going 312 m.p.h. Because police radar cannot verify the true speed, it displays no speed at all, Churchman says.

The company claims the devices are legal in all 50 states and backs the product by a guarantee to pay speeding tickets. The payment guarantee is limited to 15 m.p.h. over the posted maximum speed, which shows that the firm does not condone excessive speeding, Churchman says.

He says his products are intended to protect motorists from speed traps, which are used by municipal governments to generate revenue. But safety advocates dismiss that rationale.

“We like the enforcement of speed limits, because speeding causes fatalities,” says Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety. “This scrambler is even worse than a detector, because it enables people to speed with impunity and does not even force you to slow down. It is reprehensible.”