California Laser Jamming Device Laws
It’s important to note that there are two types of speed measuring devices the police uses: laser speed guns (also called police lidars), and police radars.
Jamming police radars and operating a radar jammer is a federal offense and prohibited in the entire US. Police radars, while almost equally accurate, and mostly no longer used by law enforcement.
Laser speed guns or LIDARs are more commonly used nowadays. Some states prohibit the use of laser jammers, while most of US has no specific anti-laser jammer laws.
Is laser jamming legal in California?
In some states you can legally use laser jammers, but in California attempting to interfere with the operation of both laser and radar speed measuring devices is illegal.
California Vehicle Code Section 28150 (Division 12: Equipment of Vehicles, Chapter 5: Other Equipment, Article 17: Jamming Devices) states the following:
(a) No vehicle shall be equipped with any device that is designed for, or is capable of, jamming, scrambling, neutralizing, disabling, or otherwise interfering with radar, laser, or any other electronic device used by a law enforcement agency to measure the speed of moving objects.
(b) No person shall use, buy, possess, manufacture, sell, or otherwise distribute any device that is designed for jamming, scrambling, neutralizing, disabling, or otherwise interfering with radar, laser, or any other electronic device used by a law enforcement agency to measure the speed of moving objects.
(c) Except as provided in subdivision (d), a violation of subdivision (a) or (b) is an infraction.
(d) When a person possesses four or more devices in violation of subdivision (b), the person is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person who has a valid federal license for operating the devices described in this section may transport one or more of those devices if the license is carried in the vehicle transporting the device at all times when the device is being transported.
How radar and laser jammers work?
Radar jammers work on the principle of interfering frequencies from police radars. Police laser jammers work to interrupt their highly focused beam of infrared light.
While the effectiveness of radar and laser jamming devices is often debatable, it is a fact they are illegal to use in many United States including California.
Radar and laser detectors
There are no relevant California laws to prevent you from using radar detectors or laser detectors, so we consider these devices legal to use. As long as the detection device does not interfere with radar or lidar devices used by law enforcement they are not illegal.
