By Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH (http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/scanlaws/)

MSRDL site gets quick mention in Popular Communications magazine! THE TIME IS NOW: Local Time. Internet services provided for free by Mobile Scanner and RADAR-Detector Laws		06 MAR 2007 - REGARDING RUMOR THAT FLORIDA IS LOOKING INTO A RADAR DETECTOR BAN: Yes, this is true. In some recent AP articles spread about in various Florida papers, Senator Stephen Oelrich is trying to convince the Florida legislature to pass a law which would prohibit the use of detectors and jammers. Their use would become a secondary, non-criminal offense, but would carry an additional ticket/fine. Mind you, you wouldn't get pulled OVER just for having a radar detector in your vehicle; but if stopped for speeding, you would be ticketed for both speeding AND the possession of a detector. To convince lawmakers to pass the law, however, slightly incorrect information is being used. At least as stated in recent articles, Oelrich advises that NINE STATES across the US already prohibit detectors. This is incorrect, and it tends to give the incorrect impression that there is more support across the country for RD laws than there actually is. There are only TWO states across the US which actually ban radar DETECTORS: DC and VA. Senator Oelrich is confusing radar DETECTORS with radar JAMMERS. They are not the same. Detectors are PASSIVE devices which do NOT emit any signals to interfere with law enforcement frequencies. JAMMERS are ACTIVE devices which emit signals designed to MALICIOUSLY INTERFERE with a police radar gun so as to render the radar gun useless. There ARE multiple states across the country with anti-JAMMER laws (and I support the JAMMER laws); but Sen. Oelrich is incorrect about there being nine states across the country with anti-DETECTOR laws. Here is the original article as published in the Pensacola News Journal, and beneath it my Letter to the Editor. Since it's publishing, the proposed law has been made public and it has become apparent that the bill proposes to make both detectors AND jammers illegal. I've since been interviewed as well by the Miami Herald/NPR and I've given similar responses. I'm not really for or AGAINST the use of RDs in Florida. Although, I don't really see the need for an anti-RD law as I don't think it would actually do that much good, to be honest. I think more good is done just by pointing a radar gun up the road and leaving it on, and/or leaving a patrol car parked in the median with same, or with a dummy, or with both, and serve more towards the intended purpose than a law would. And I've actually encountered these (very ingenious) tricks being used before in just about every state up the eastern coastline, and they WORK. I mean, the whole point IS, actually...to make people SLOW DOWN. Correct? LAW UPDATE!!! MICHIGAN LAW UPDATED - Bill making scanner use in Michigan no longer illegal unless used in furtherance of a crime has been passed and made actual law. So use of a scanner while mobile in Michigan is legal. 22 SEP 06 - I'd like to apologize to everyone for kinda abandoning these pages last year or so. My mother developed cancer in her lungs with a couple of badly placed nodules that were SO close to major heart arteries that the doctors didn't want to risk operating on them so she's been going through a widely varying regiment of chemo (as well as radiation) treatments. I've been taking care of her a lot during the past couple of years because she was so weak she couldn't do a whole lot by herself for a time. She almost met her maker in the beginning of the year when the chemo treatments had weakened her and made her very ill. But she pulled through and they took her off all treatments for a while to give her some chance to regain strength, which she's been doing nicely. At this point she's strong enough to fix some meals by herself, sometimes...and occasionaly to even make some trips to the nearby shopping center. So she's getting better. She's been on O2 for quite some time, and I'm being told that she probably will be now for the rest of her life. Recently they did scans and couldn't find any obvious presence of lumps or nodules so it appears that we may be lucky for now and the cancer appears it may be in remission. They've got scans scheduled in another two months to make sure. This, along with a number of other very stressful things going on simultaneously over the past FEW years, has made it difficult. I'll try to put the new law up soon, here, in the meantime...and I need to verify things are kosher still in other states as well. Again though, I apologize to everyone for the inconvenience. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still here and that I've just been kinda overwhelmed for a while. NEW!!! FAQ SHEET: COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS - Please read this before you send me any e-mail, or ask me any questions! Thanks. Introduction his site is for you. It is here for you to reference free of charge. No access fees. No gimmicks. No "catches." It is here because one guy thought it would be kind of a neat idea to share his own hard research work with others ... because it has to do with a subject common to us all as we drive about the U.S. [NOTE: "Free" implies, of course, that you can use it for PERSONAL use, yes, by Joe Average Citizen. Free to read; to personally reference, to access at no charge - but not to TAKE, and/or to purport as your own - be it to a term paper, book, webpage, video, or whatever, as some unethical commercial entities have tried to do with my work in the past (and are still doing). The copyright notice at the bottom of all my pages means that I still reserve all rights to these works. If I find that you've copied all this to your own FOR-PROFIT site, in an effort to try to line your pocket with profits from the work that I have done here, just to increase your userbase (i.e., "customer traffic"), with no prior agreements made, with no credit to the guy who did all the work, and in complete ignorance and disrespect of the author, then I can quickly become a rabid monster. This information is not to be used by commercial entities as a ploy to try gather more customers to your site. There IS, and always has been, a COPYRIGHT statement at the bottom of these pages - since the day that this site was created. Please respect it. Thanks. See also the link to the "Copyright Notice and Warning" statement at the bottom of my pages. -Todd] This site is here to help those of us who wish to abide by the law to do just that. It lists the text of any STATE-LEVEL laws regarding the mobile usage of Radio-Frequency Scanners or RADAR-Detectors. If they are illegal to use in some way, you can look up the state(s) you intend to travel through and find out, now, immediately. And its all in one place. Now you don't have to find them piece-by-piece from many sites spread all about the web, spending hours at many search engines, using mounds of keywords which may or may not work for you. That being said, please note: I said you can look up the laws. I am not your personal AAA TripTik Planner Person. Please don't ask me to draw out a map to plan your trip to avoid states with anti-scanner/RD laws for you. (There is some effort required on your part, here. I've already done the hard part for you.) The Scanner Laws subpage will be of use to people like amateur radio operators ("hams"), public service officials (police, fire, EMS, etc.), travelling news reporters, NWS-SKYWARN weather spotters, and other people who are often mobile and who may cross state lines in their travels, and who like to (or must) use a scanner in order to know what is going on around them. [NOTE: Hams using transceivers capable of monitoring public service frequencies outside of the ham bands should be aware of the existence of P.R. 91-36. This document has been out for ten years and yet, not many hams are even aware of it's existence. It is a FEDERAL-level preemption of lower-level state and local laws which regulate the reception of public service frequencies. In most cases, hams are exempted in the laws; but not always. This document makes your OOB-capable mobile transceivers legal everywhere in the U.S. It is a Memorandum, Opinion and ORDER, and it carries the same level of authority as actual law, and it must be obeyed. Note that PR 91-36 does NOT cover the use of external or portable scanners; only OOB-capable transceivers. See the "U.S. Federal Laws" subpage for more.] The RADAR-Detector Laws subpage will be of use to most everyone who travels. We ALL use the Interstates. Many of us use radar-detectors. And we all want to know where it may be illegal to use a radar-detector so that we can be law-abiding and put them away while travelling through those states. (Right?) This particular subpage assumes that the reason you have a radar-detector is so that you can be reminded in the course of your travels that your foot might be lead because you're not paying ATTENTION; i.e., for those who are legitimitely trying to be law-abiding. In this function, the radar-detector is quite useful. I know I don't trust MY auto-pilot (noone SHOULD). So I drive manually. When you do that, it's easily possible that you could end up speeding - and not deliberately - if you're not paying attention. We have ALL done that, repeatedly. So, I know there's no question or argument, there. In these cases, yes, the radar-detector can give you one last-chance reminder to check your speedometer just to be sure. When used in this way, I am a big proponent for the use of radar-detectors. It is a legitimite use, and especially towards safety. On the other hand, this subpage is not intended to help people who intend to deliberately speed. There is a big difference between the two uses of radar-detectors, and personally, I don't support that latter one. Just the text, mam. This site simply provides the TEXT of the laws I could find in each state, if any were found. And again - this site deals with laws regarding use while mobile - and not with general privacy monitoring laws (which just about every state has, and which is already regulated on the federal level). For the laws regarding that, please see the NF2G Scannist Pages, an excellent web site by David Stark/NF2G. Dave is a law student, and also a ham radio operator (thus, his callsign..."NF2G"). His web site specializes in federal laws regarding communications monitoring. When I get a federal-related comm question, I usually forward it his way. When you use us together, you'll always be well informed. I'd cover the federal laws, myself, but since Dave already has a site on that subject, I see no need for duplicating of information on an already crowded web, and Dave's site is quite comprehensive. - I've updated my Links page to include a lot of helpful stuff for the traveller, including hotel and auto-rental reservation sites, map sites, sites relating to technical aspects of scanners and radar-detectors, online state code/statute sites (so you can check for yourself), and more. Please feel free to check it out! Since it's sort of along the lines of what I'm trying to accomplish, here, I'm "temporarily" adding a new page to this site tracking where use of mobile phones is illegal. Whether I decide to keep it or not depends upon how much work this actually turns out to be, and whether I feel like doing that much added work. But use this to find out where use of mobile cell phones is now illegal. INDEX: FAQ SHEET - PLEASE READ! Before you send me e-mail or ask me any questions, please read this FAQ sheet, first. Thanks. What This Site Is NOT About A Lot of Hard Work Regarding `Advertising' DISCLAIMER The Laws U.S. Federal Laws State Scanner Laws State Radar Detector Laws Mobile Cellular Phone Restrictions Regarding Technical-Related Questions Links & Resources What's New! COPYRIGHT NOTICE & WARNING!
Mobile Scanner & RADAR-Detector Laws In The U.S. by Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH Gainesville, Alachua Co., Fla. E-mail: skywarn@fireline.org Page Created: (About August, 1995.) Last updated: March 06, 2007. COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND WARNING STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, CREDITS, and KUDOS All information at this web site is Copyright © 1995-2007 by Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH. All Rights Reserved. Except for personal use, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. (Offered FREE as a public service to local area residents within Alachua County, FL courtesy Alachua County SKYWARN and the Alachua County EMWIN Project.)