Nebraska Bans Radar Jammers, Not Radar Detectors

Section 60-6,275 makes it unlawful for any person to operate or possess any radar transmission device while operating a motor vehicle on any highway in Nebraska, and grades the offense a Class IIIA misdemeanor. Everything turns on what a radar transmission device is, and section 60-6,274(1) answers that with a single clause: any mechanism designed to interfere with the reception of radio microwaves in the electromagnetic spectrum, which microwaves, commonly referred to as radar, are employed by law enforcement officials to measure the speed of motor vehicles. A jammer or scrambler is designed to interfere with that reception. A passive detector receives the same microwaves and alerts the driver; it does not interfere with the officer's reception of them, and nothing in sections 60-6,274 through 60-6,277 mentions detection, receiving or alerting the driver.

The absence is provable rather than assumed. A keyword search of the whole Nebraska Revised Statutes for detector returns five sections, and every one is unrelated: sections 81-5,143, 81-5,144 and 81-5,145 on smoke detectors, section 48-1903 on polygraph test results, and section 76-2303.01 on appraisal bar test surveys. A search requiring both radar and detector in the same document returns nothing at all.

Section 60-6,274(2) is the trap most readers miss. Possession is defined so that merely carrying a prohibited device counts unless it is both disconnected from all power sources and stowed in the rear trunk, which the statute says includes the spare tire compartment, or in another compartment not accessible to the driver or any other person while the vehicle is in operation. If the vehicle has no such compartment, the device must be disconnected and placed where it is not readily accessible. So a jammer can be transported through Nebraska, but only under those exact stowage conditions.

Two exemptions follow in section 60-6,276. Section 60-6,275 does not apply to any transmitter, transceiver or receiver of radio waves lawfully licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, nor to any device being used by law enforcement officials in their official duties. Section 60-6,274(3) separately defines a transceiver as an apparatus in a single housing functioning alternately as a radio transmitter and receiver.

Commercial vehicles run on a different rule. Section 75-363(3)(g) adopts 49 C.F.R. Part 392, driving of commercial motor vehicles, as Nebraska law, and section 75-365(3) fixes the version adopted as the one in effect on January 1, 2026. Part 392 contains 49 C.F.R. 392.71, which bars a driver from using a radar detector in a commercial motor vehicle or operating one that is equipped with or contains a radar detector, and bars a motor carrier from requiring or permitting the violation. Under section 75-363(2)(b) those adopted rules reach intrastate Nebraska carriers whose vehicles exceed ten thousand pounds gross vehicle or combination weight rating, vehicles designed or used to carry more than eight passengers including the driver for compensation, placarded hazardous materials vehicles, and any driver operating a commercial motor vehicle that requires a commercial driver's license.

A radar transmission device offense under section 60-6,275 is a Class IIIA misdemeanor, which section 28-106 caps at seven days imprisonment, a five hundred dollar fine, or both. Section 60-6,277 adds a forfeiture: a device found as the result of an arrest under sections 60-6,275 and 60-6,276 is seized, and once it is no longer needed as evidence it is treated as contraband and disposed of under section 29-820 if the owner was convicted. Nebraska also puts real conditions on the speed evidence itself. Section 60-6,192(1) makes a microwave, mechanical or electronic speed measurement reading admissible only on proof that the device was in proper working order at the time of the measurement, that it was operated in a manner and under conditions allowing a minimum possibility of distortion or outside interference, that the operator was qualified by training and experience to test and operate it, and that the operator conducted external accuracy tests within a reasonable time both before and after the arrest.

Section 60-6,192(2) further requires the apprehending officer to be in uniform and to display a badge of authority, and either to have observed the recording personally or to have received an immediate radio message describing the vehicle and its recorded speed.