Under the Radar
Some questions get continually asked due to the difficulty involved in providing an accurate answer: Will the Chicago Cubs win another World Series Championship this season? - Yes. No. Maybe? If tomatoes are a fruit, is ketchup technically a smoothie? Yes. No. Maybe? Are radar detectors legal to use in Indiana? Yes. No. Maybe? Ask just about anyone if you are allowed to own/use a radar detector in your car and you’ll get one of those three answers.
The truth is, Indiana has no restrictions when it comes to using radar detectors.
However, despite being legal, anyone with even a modicum of common sense knows that radar detectors often end up having the adverse effect that drivers are hoping for: they draw police attention.
In fact, police attention is what led to the invention of the modern day radar detector. Radatron Corp. is credited with inventing and marketing one in 1960, but the device truly came to fruition thanks to a radar engineer named Dale T. Smith. Smith was pulled over for speeding in New York state in 1968 and, rather than admit guilt and make the conscious decision to no longer speed, he invented what he dubbed The Fuzzbuster. Smith’s claim was that, despite his speeding, he was unfairly targeted in a speed trap along with other drivers.
After doing some research, Smith learned that police radar guns at the time operated within the X band, using a 10.5 gigahertz frequency. He modified a receiver and was able to get it to detect when a signal emitted at that level. He was eventually able to get the device to fit into a small cigar box that he placed on his dashboard, and, while driving, if the box detected said signal, a light would appear to warn him to slow down.
The Fuzzbuster was an instant hit, becoming so popular with consumers that many people used the name even when discussing competitors products. Sales increased big time in 1974, when the U.S. Government declared a maximum speed limit of 55mph on all major highways. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were against this change and bought radar detectors for their vehicles. Sales also increased for Citizen Band radios - aka CB Radios - not so that drivers could converse with one another, but get heads-up reports from truckers and other motorists about speed traps.
Radar detectors could detect police radar, but police radar devices were also able to detect radar detectors, as they operated on the same band/frequency and therefore “talked” to one another. Many drivers were pulled over and had their devices confiscated, or destroyed on the spot, and even if that didn’t happen, rumors spread anyway, with drivers beginning to get scared away from having them.
By the end of the 1970’s, radar detectors were declared illegal for truck drivers to use, but legal for ordinary motorists, further muddying the “are they legal or illegal” waters. What followed was many years of waning consumer interest, along with a lot of back and forth between police departments and radar detector manufacturers. Police departments would continually unveil new radar detector detectors (say that 3 times fast), thus giving them the edge on speeding motorists once again, only for radar detector manufacturers to invent and market new devices that couldn’t be detected, giving motorists the edge over police….and this battle is still ongoing.
As it stands now, yes, they are legal to use in Indiana, though many drivers no longer do so. If you have a radar detector, trust me, the police know you have it. Why give anyone a reason to pull you over? Pay attention to the road, and to other drivers around you, maintain safe speeds, and you’ll be just fine.
Drive safe, drive smart!