Ex-lawman uses GPS to fight ticket

<p>Roger Rude served in plenty of leadership capacities during a 29-year career with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, but in his retirement suddenly finds himself at odds with a host of local law enforcement personnel.</p><p>Rude, who retired as a lieutenant in 2006, has been in the national spotlight for using a global positioning system device to challenge a speeding given to his stepson, Shaun Malone, while driving in Petaluma — and police officers, in particular, aren’t very happy about it.</p><p>“Some of them feel that I have crossed a line,” said Rude. “But these types of situations should be about truth, and they show the importance of checks and balances.” </p><p>Rude’s stepson, 17-year-old Shaun Malone, was given a ticket on Lakeville Highway on July 4 after a Petaluma police motorcycle officer using radar clocked his 2000 Toyota Celica GTS at 62 mph in a 45-mph zone.</p><p>A Sonoma County Superior Court judge ruled in November that Malone was guilty of speeding. Rude, who installed a GPS device made by Rocky Mountain Tracking in Malone’s car in October of 2006, claims that the device shows that Malone was traveling at 45 mph at exactly the same time and place.</p><p>Malone, a junior at Windsor High School, filed an appeal after the ruling, and Rude and the rest of his family is supporting him. The teen wasn’t happy when Rude and wife Karen Kahn decided to install the GPS system in his car.</p><p>“He’s a teenager — he hated it, and still does,” Rude said.</p><p>Rude emphasizes that the system wasn’t installed due to unusually reckless behavior by Malone.</p><p>“Shaun is a very responsible young man,” Rude said. “He’s an A and B student, and bought his car with his own money and maintains it on his own dime. But he’s also a teenager, so tracking his driving is a good parenting tool.</p><p>“In situations where kids are right about something but parents don’t believe them, this can result in problematic aspects in their relationship. We now don’t need to question Shaun about his driving, because we know what he does.” </p><p>Rude says that he is supporting Malone’s appeal for three basic reasons.</p><p>“My wife and I want to make sure that he understands that we support him, and believe in him. We also want to publicize the importance of GPS tracking for teens. And if we win in court, Shaun will be vindicated,” he said, adding that the trial date is to be determined in February.</p><p>Rude, who has created a Web site, www.rudeview.com, to explain Malone’s case and advocate GPS devices, says he was first drawn to law enforcement after becoming aware of a fatality involving a reckless teenage driver.</p><p>“The accident involved a 15-year-old girl in Malibu, and was a needless tragedy,” he said. “For me, this was a defining moment, because it made me want to intervene before things like this happen.</p><p>“Since then, I’ve seen far too many similar tragedies, and know that if parents would use GPS systems, this would make a major impact in saving the lives of teens.”</p><p>At the heart of his stepson’s case is whether police GPS tracking is more accurate than police radar tracking, and because GPS technology is new, the decision could have implications for future cases involving speeding tickets throughout the country.</p><p>“Radar is a good tool if used in a proper environment and in a proper way, but it’s not flawless,” Rude said. “Radar can generate an inaccurate signal due to several different factors, including fans and generators in vehicles in which readings are taken. Also, GPS is vehicle-specific, but radar is not, so if radar is shot at a line of traffic, sometimes the wrong vehicle is singled out.”</p><p>The Petaluma Police Department hired Stephen Heppe, president of avionics for Isitu Group in Bingen, Wash., to participate in the trial. </p><p>Hiring Heppe is costing the department several thousand dollars, but Lt. Joe Edwards says that he is needed to explain the different technologies involved.</p><p>“We have to bring him in to explain how the process works,” Edwards said. “We have nothing to hide: We just want the facts and the truth to come out.”</p><p>If Malone wins the appeal, this will open the door for other GPS challenges of police radar tracking, but Rude says that a new technology — Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR — can improve the situation. </p><p>“It is being widely used and gives much more specific readings than radar, but it’s more expensive,” Rude said.</p><p>Unlike traditional police radar, LIDAR guns measure change in wave frequency. They send out many infrared laser bursts in a short period of time to collect how fast a vehicle is traveling at several different distances. The guns may take several hundred samples in less than half a second, and proponents claim they are extremely accurate.</p><p>“At this point, we aren’t using LIDAR,”Edwards said. “It’s just become available, and it’s expensive to buy.”</p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com.)</p>