Radar Detectors Are Legal in Rhode Island Cars and Banned in Trucks Over 10,001 Pounds

Rhode Island's motor vehicle equipment code is a closed-list statute for the things it does regulate, so the absence of a radar detector provision is meaningful rather than merely quiet. Chapter 31-23 runs from brakes and horns through mufflers, mirrors, windshield wipers, tires, safety glass, fenders, seat belts, television receivers, earphones and catalytic converters, and chapter 31-24 enumerates every lamp a vehicle may carry. Neither chapter mentions radar, laser, speed measurement or detection devices. The same is true of chapter 31-27, which houses the moving offenses, and of the Criminal Offenses title.

Section 31-23-2 is what makes an unlisted accessory lawful. Subsection (a) provides that nothing in chapter 31-23 or chapter 31-24 shall be construed to prohibit the use of additional parts and accessories on any vehicle not inconsistent with the provisions of those chapters. Subsection (b) states the limit and gives it teeth: no person shall install or adjust equipment, a part or an accessory intended for highway use that would make the vehicle or its operation inconsistent with those chapters and could result in a notice under § 31-38-2. The penalty ladder in (b) is unusually steep for an equipment rule, at two hundred fifty dollars ($250) for a first violation, five hundred dollars ($500) for a second and one thousand dollars ($1,000) for a third and subsequent violations, and the same figures appear in the traffic-tribunal schedule at § 31-41.1-4 under the heading installation or adjustment of unsafe or prohibited parts, equipment, or accessories.

Mounting is where a lawful detector can still earn a ticket. Section 31-23-16(a) forbids driving with any sign, poster or other nontransparent material on the front windshield, side wings, or side or rear windows that obstructs the driver's clear view of the highway or any intersecting highway, and the § 31-41.1-4 schedule prices that at one hundred dollars ($100.00). Section 31-23-38(a) separately bars any television viewer, screen or other means of visually receiving a television broadcast from the operator's field of view, with a fine of not more than one hundred dollars ($100), while (b) preserves an electronic display used exclusively for safety or in conjunction with a vehicle navigation system. A radar detector is not a television receiver and does not display a broadcast, so § 31-23-38 does not reach it; the operative constraint on placement is the obstruction test in § 31-23-16.

Commercial vehicles are governed by federal rules that Rhode Island has enacted as its own. Section 31-23-1(b)(1) says that for the purpose of reducing the number and severity of accidents, all commercial motor vehicles must meet the standards in chapters 31-23 and 31-24 and in the federal motor carrier safety regulations contained in 49 CFR Parts 387 and 390 through 399, as amended and adopted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Part 392 falls inside that range, and 49 CFR § 392.71(a) provides that no driver shall use a radar detector in a commercial motor vehicle, or operate a commercial motor vehicle equipped with or containing any radar detector, with (b) barring a carrier from requiring or permitting a driver to do so. Section 31-23-1(c) defines carrier as any company or person furthering a commercial or private enterprise with a vehicle rated at ten thousand and one (10,001) pounds gross vehicle weight or more, or transporting hazardous material.

Rhode Island does have one statute about receiving police signals, and drivers sometimes confuse it with a detector ban. Section 11-1-11 provides that a person convicted of a felony drug offense under chapter 21-28 involving manufacture, sale, delivery or possession with intent, or of a felony burglary or breaking and entering offense under chapter 11-8, shall not carry, transport or possess, or have under his or her control outside of his or her own home, any operational police radio, police scanner, or any other device capable of monitoring police broadcasts. On its terms the section reaches equipment for listening to police transmissions rather than equipment that senses a speed-measuring emission, and it binds only that defined class of prior offenders. The penalty is imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both.

Finally, a lawful detector does not make the reading it produces useful in court, and it does not change the speeding statute. Rhode Island prices speeding on a per-mile basis at the Traffic Tribunal under § 31-41.1-4, at ten dollars ($10.00) for each mile over the limit on a first offense, fifteen dollars ($15.00) per mile on a second within twelve months and twenty dollars ($20.00) per mile on a third, with a licence suspension of up to sixty (60) days available on top.

Owning or using a radar detector in a private passenger vehicle is not an offense in Rhode Island, so there is nothing to enforce and no confiscation power over the device. The exposure a driver actually faces comes from three neighbouring rules.

First, placement. A detector suction-cupped where it blocks the driver's view of the highway or an intersecting highway violates § 31-23-16(a), a one hundred dollar ($100.00) item on the § 31-41.1-4 schedule handled administratively through the Traffic Tribunal.

Second, the general accessory rule. Installing equipment that makes the vehicle inconsistent with chapters 31-23 or 31-24 breaches § 31-23-2(b) and carries the $250, $500 and $1,000 ladder. An officer meeting an unsafe installation may also act under § 31-38-2, issuing a written notice requiring the vehicle to be corrected and approved within five (5) days, with three such notices for the same defect in twelve months forcing the Director of Revenue to suspend the registration.

Third, commercial operation. A driver or carrier caught with a radar detector in a vehicle over 10,001 pounds GVWR or carrying hazardous material violates 49 CFR § 392.71 as adopted by § 31-23-1(b)(1). Section 31-23-1(b)(2) says any carrier convicted of violating those rules shall be fined as provided in § 31-41.1-4, and that schedule sets motor carrier safety violations at not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) per offense. Under § 31-23-1(g) the violation is also recorded on the federally approved commercial vehicle inspection report in addition to the Rhode Island uniform summons.