Law-enforcement technologySpeed camera detectors gaining popularity in Europe

Marc Guerin, a software salesman, said he used to get three or four tickets per year from speed cameras that caught him during his twenty-three mile commute to and from work. Now,when Guerin gets in his car, he turns on a device known as a Coyote, a radar warning and traffic service that alerts him to the locations of France’s 3,000 speed cameras.

Guerin has not received a single speeding ticket since he began using the Coyote three years ago; this has saved him about $515 per year.

“For one thing, I no longer get caught by the speed cameras, which are all over France,” Mr. Guerin toldthe New York Times. “For another, it advises me constantly of the legal speed limits and traffic conditions, so I am better informed and much more relaxed when driving.” 

The Coyote device, which is used on a smartphone,is highly effective.

“This type of technology is going to soon be standard in most vehicles,” Serge Bussat, the vice president of sales at Coyote,said.

The Times reports that Coyote program is currently being used by 1.7 million people in Europe, one-third of whomlive in France. Garmin and TomTom, the two biggest makers of navigation devices,both bundle speed camera alert services with most of their latest products. A string of specialty services has also sprung up, including Blitzer.de in Germany and Radardroid in Spain.

There are 25,000 active speed cameras in Europe, according to Arpad Nemeth, the owner of Poiplaza, a firm in Budapest that manages a database of 4.7 million points of interest logged by their precise geographic coordinates. 

According to Nemeth, the locations of mobile and fixed speed cameras in his firm’s database were compiled by the 80,000 people who downloaded and used the free application. European governments also publish the locations of speed cameras they install.

Radar detection systems and databases are legal in most countries in Europe but are illegal in Germany and Switzerland. The Coyote program warns itscustomers of the legal ban in Germany, but it still provides data on where speed cameras are located, so does Radardroid, an application sold through Google’s Android application store.

“Our app is being used in Germany right now,” Felix Ventero, the software engineer who created Radardroid, which is used by a million people, mostly in Europe,told the Times. “The reality is, people are using these services because the technology makes it possible.”

Last year the French government forced Coyote to amend itspractices due to concerns that the service was enabling speeding, which increased the risk of accidents and death.

Now Coyote will alert a driver when they enter a “risk zone” — a 2-mile stretch that could have a speed camera, but also an accident or traffic jam.

The Coyote system is now gaining support. The French motor company Renault announced plans during the Paris Motor Show toinstall the Coyote system in all of its new cars next year,in seven different European markets, but not in Germany.

The Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft, which represents the country’s federal police force, and several German states that earn revenue from speeders who are ticketed, oppose lifting the ban.

“The thinking is that speed cameras, especially those set up near schools or hospitals, serve an educational purpose,” Matthias Knobloch, the manager director of the European Automobile Clubs told the Times. “Generally, the police view the technology as an obstacle to doing their jobs.”

Knobloch said he doubts that German politicians, faced with opposition from state law enforcement officials and others, would voluntarily lift the ban on radar detection systems, but that will not stop people from using them because of the difficulties of detecting the application on a smartphone.

“It is hard to stop this type of useful technology.” Knobloch said.