People v. Sachs

• Decision Date: 21 December 1955
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of New York v. Rose SACHS, Defendant. PEOPLE of the State of New York v. William H. DWYER, Defendant. City Magistrate's Court of City of New York, Borough of Queens, Flushing District
• Court: New York Magistrate Court

Page 801

147 N.Y.S.2d 801

1 Misc.2d 148

PEOPLE of the State of New York v. Rose SACHS, Defendant.

PEOPLE of the State of New York v. William H. DWYER, Defendant.

City Magistrate's Court of City of New York, Borough of

Queens, Flushing District.

Dec. 21, 1955.

Louis L. Roos, Director of Legal Bureau, Police Department, New York City (Louis L. Stutman and Joseph T. McDonough, New York City, of counsel), for the People.

Myron T. Sachs and Sidney M. Block, Jamaica, for defendants.

DEL GIORNO, City Magistrate.

The People, on the complaint of police officer Henry Herzog, charge that the defendant, Rose Sachs, on July 22, 1955, at about 1:10 p. m., operated a motor vehicle eastbound along Union Turnpike near Grand Central Parkway, a public highway in the County of Queens, City of New York, at 44 miles per hour, whereas the posted permissible speed is 30 miles per hour, all in violation of Article 4, Section 60, of the traffic regulations adopted by the traffic commissioner of the City of New York.

Likewise, the People, on the complaint of police officer James Jamieson, charge the defendant Dwyer with operating a motor vehicle on July 24, 1955, at about 2:50 p. m., along Union Turnpike and 232nd Street, in Queens County, at 44 miles per hour, whereas the speed limit set by the same regulations is 30 miles per hour.

Both defendants pleaded not guilty.

The various proceedings and trial were adjourned a number of times.

In both these cases the speed charged against these defendants was checked not by the commonly known speedometer used either in police autos or motorcycles, but by radar equipment. The validity of radar used by the New York City Police Department since about June 14, 1955, to check the speed on motor vehicles on our city highways was contested by the defendants, who in addition thereto also raised the issue as to whether the radar unit used had properly recorded the speed of their vehicles instead of some other vehicles which were within its so called zone of influence.

This was made a test case, and upon its results hinge the ultimate fate of many others which have been adjourned to await this decision.

The trial of these cases took place on September 9, 1955, October 5, 1955, and October 7, 1955. The minutes run to over 300 pages. The court obviously can only summarize this testimony. One fact stands out importantly. The police department of the City of New York, about the beginning of 1955, embarked on a large-scale use of radar to check the speed of motor vehicles in place of the familiar, never liked but equally respected motorcycles and automobiles heretofore used.

It proceeded with the anticipated use of radar by establishing a radar unit composed of picked policemen, and trained them for their newly assigned job for over four (4) months.

The training was given by the engineering bureau of the police department, City of New York.

Classes were held at 400 Broome Street. Radar equipment was placed before the policemen and they were taught how to make it operate. They were given a technical understanding of its method of operation.

Then for a further period of two months, actual road tests were given to the officers on the manner in which the radar unit could pick up moving vehicles in its radarscope and identify them.

These instructions and on-the-job training were given by Acting Captain Maher and Chief Engineer Jacob Katz and Mr. Norman Boyle, an engineer, all of the police department.

Mr. Jacob Katz is the well-known and highly respected chief engineer of the police department. Mr. Katz did not testify. Mr. Norman T. Boyle who did testify stated that he is a graduate of Villanova in electrical engineering and of Fordham Law School. His degrees were B.S. in E.E., L.L.B., and P.E. He has been with the police department 25 years. He particularly testified as an expert on the accuracy of the mothod heretofore exclusively used in testing the speedometers on motorcycles or radio cars.

This part of the testimony left no doubt as to the importance the police department places upon the proper training and the acquisition by its officers of the necessary technical understanding of the working, and setup of the radar unit. Whether one accepts the new mode of apprehension or not, one must give due credit to the sensitivity of our police department to the rights of motorists, as indicated by the care and thoroughness of the training of the officers in the radar unit. The testimony on the part of the People (we will speak of the Sachs case, since it is similar to the Dwyer case, except in the defense offered) shows that a radar unit was in operation at the time of the apprehension of the defendant. The police use two cars for this detail. One is known as the radar car and the other as the apprehending car. Patrolman Herzog was in charge of the radar car.

From the officer's testimony we can develop the preparations made to check on and apprehend a speeding vehicle.

On the day in question he was operating car number 78, the radar car. He placed his car off the roadway of Union Turnpike just about where the curbing would be, and parallel with the roadway.

Patrolman Wilkening, who was operating the other car known as the apprehending car, stationed himself at Union Turnpike and 235th Street, about 1,000 feet ahead of Patrolman Herzog. Both cars have intercommunicating radio phones, and both cars could see each other.

In the radar car there were three electrically operated instruments used to check by radar the speed of vehicles on the highway. These are: (1) a transmitter-receiver. This is mounted in the trunk of the car about three feet above the highway. It sends out microwaves towards vehicles approaching the rear of the radar car. It also receives waves reflected from a moving object which comes through its zone of influence which is approximately 150 feet to 300 feet, depending on the height of the apparatus from the ground; (2) a speedmeter which records the speed of the vehicle in the zone of influence. It is located on the dashboard directly in front of the officer sitting at the steering wheel; and (3) the graphic recorder, which is set up on a special stand in the front of the car, directly to the right of the operator of the vehicle. It makes a permanent record on special graph paper of the speed of the vehicle within the zone of influence.

These are all connected with each other by means of electric cables. They compose the elements required for this operation, namely, sending out of microwaves to catch a speeding vehicle, receiving of microwaves (of different frequency) which are reflected to the same unit by the moving vehicle, which automatically and simultaneously are indicated visually on the speedmeter for the operator to see and recorded permanently in red ink on the graphic recorder. These instruments operate on a special independent 6 volt battery.

When the two cars have chosen their position the radar unit is placed in operation. But to determine its accuracy, as well as its zone of influence, then another officer operating a police motorcycle with a solid shield in front of it, extending about the width of the bars and from about one foot above the ground to about five feet above the ground, makes test runs in each lane of the roadway on the side of the radar car. He passes through the zone of influence to the apprehending car. There he calls the radar operator on the radio phone and they compare the speed on the motorcycle and that indicated in the radar car. The speed must check before the unit is placed in operation for enforcement of the speed regulation. In this manner the extent of the zone of influence in approximate feet is also determined for each lane.

The speed of the motorcycle is recorded on the graph and is so marked. At the end of the tour, this operation is repeated, and a notation of the test is permanently recorded on the graph.

The court doubts that such care, as is fully evinced here, is taken in any other municipality to assure that so far as human concern can guarantee, an honest against a motorist is made.

The People called as a witness Dr. John M. Kopper. He is an electrical engineer engaged in the practice of electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He has been a member of the staff since 1937. He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Johns Hopkins, and a Doctor of Engineering degree which he received from the same university in 1944. His professional experience has consisted largely of research and development in the field of electrical engineering in many phases of that field. Presently he is engaged in testing certain automatic controls which are a part of radar systems and which are of a classified nature.

He was engaged with the National Advisory Committee at their laboratory at Langley Field, Virginia, for one and one-half years and with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation for two years, in both cases in the field of instrument development, high-voltage engineering, the nature of which was in instrumentation and automatic computers. He wrote in 1955, an article with respect to the use of the electromatic speedmeter for the North Carolina Law Review.

He was offered as the scientific expert.

Briefly, he testified that he has been previously called as an expert witness by the police departments in Yonkers and New Rochelle, New York, and in New Jersey.

The stated that he is acquainted with the components of the radar set in question and the principle upon which it operates.

He stated that in the transmitter-receiver there are a group of vacuum tubes, a group of resistors, a group of capacitors and wiring; in the speedmeter there is a little magnet, coil of wire, a spring and some resistors; and in the graphic recorder there are wiring, resistors, a stylus which records in red ink on a graduated chart the speed of vehicles passing through the zone of influence. These are all interconnected by cable to...