Louisiana state troopers use lidar to help track speeders

LOUISIANA (KSLA) - Troopers with Bossier City-based Louisiana State Police Troop G were out in full force Tuesday tracking down speeding motorists in Caddo Parish.

"Once we get that visual, we never let the vehicle pass from our sight. We don't let it go behind a barrier, or behind a curve," Trooper Glenn Younger explained.

"We keep it in our sight until we pass it off to a trooper who gets it in his sight, verifies it over the radio and then they make the traffic stop."

Troopers stationed along exits and bridges used lidar to catch speeders.

Lidar stands for light detection and range

"The lidar works by taking pulses of light that travel at the speed of light," Younger explained.

"... Each time a light beam enters the lidar, it starts an internal timer. When that light beam reaches the target vehicle and returns to the lidar, it stops the time."

The devices are just one means troopers use to keep interstates and other highways safe.

"The visual of 'Hey, these guys are out here, I need to remember this' and just because I got up five minutes late does not give me cause to speed and possibly get myself or my family or other people hurt in a crash," Younger said.

Troopers conduct traffic stops a little differently than sheriff's deputies and police officers in Bossier and Caddo parishes.

Instead of just rolling down your window, troopers often ask you to get out of your vehicle.

"Especially at nighttime, we need to know what they have on their persons," Younger said.

"So if they're in the vehicle. if we were to approach the door we don't know what they have or what they can reach down and grab, so we ask them to step out. And most people are more than willing to do that because they want to see us as well."

The money from speeding tickets goes directly to the parish in which the ticket is issued, Younger said.

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