Governor from 2003 to 2011, Sanford was South Carolina’s top politician when one of the state’s prison officers was nearly killed in a hit authorities said was orchestrated by an inmate using a cell phone behind bars. In 2010, Sanford stood with Correction Capt. Robert Johnson to call on FCC officials to act on a petition to let the state start a pilot signal jamming program.
“Despite the clear danger illegal cell phones present, the FCC caved in to industry special interests and refused to allow South Carolina to carry out its proposed pilot program,” Sanford said, referencing pressure by cell phone companies. The companies argue that signal GPS jammer could affect legal users nearby and interfere with 911 calls.
As the drone industry is taking off, some individuals and groups have started using drones for malicious purposes around the globe. Many companies are watching the trend and are trying to get into the counter drone industry. They have introduced all sorts of drone guns, anti-UAS shotgun shells, attack birds, net cannons, lasers, missiles, radio signal jammers, radio spoofers, etc.
However, LIDAR signal jammer fall under FDA jurisdiction and they have no prohibitions on the infrared LEDs or LASERs for consumer use. This means speed countermeasure companies are free to produce LASER jammers as they please, and consumers are spending anywhere from $400 to $2,000 to buy these popular items.
The former captain said he’d like to see inmates locked down all of the time, but he said he realizes that might not be feasible. The Federal Communications Commission won’t currently allow for signal jamming, so, Johnson is advocating for prisons to use special technology that contains wireless signals coming from the prisons. “It offers an alternative to signal jamming that the prisons can afford and it’s proven to stop cellphones,” he said.
Most all LIDAR speed gun manufacturers utilize a fixed pulse rate between 60 pulses per second and up to 4,000 pulses per second. This makes it very easy for the jammer to detect incoming LASER because pulsed infrared signals are not a natural phenomenon so even the tiniest amount of pulsed energy signals the jammer that the vehicle is being targeted. Within a few milliseconds, the jammer detects the pulse timing and activates the jammers’ own LASERs to fire back at the LIDAR gun with the same frequency of the detected pulses.