What Laser Guns Are Used in Illinois?
Laser beams are useful in many prosaic contexts. Gary Gladstone/Creatas/Getty Images A laser is a device that emits a powerful, concentrated beam of light. Though images of high-tech weaponry from science-fiction movies come to mind, they are normally used in more prosaic contexts such as catching speeders, enhancing tasers or performing operations in industrial machinery. They are no more exotic in Illinois than soybeans. Speeding Laser The Illinois State Police often catch speeders with laser guns instead of standard radar. Known as lidar, the devices use a light beam instead of radio waves to measure the speed of a vehicle. Although police regularly convict speeders in other states with this laser, several judges in Chicago have been throwing out speeding ticket cases since they do not yet meet the Frye Standard of scientific validity (see Frye v. United States [1963] for details). Judges in traffic courts outside Chicago have not ruled consistently on the matter. Some speeders caug
