Police Radar Set Makes Debut Here-August 1, 1957

Halts Four Speed Violators

A powerful weapon which would produce undisputable evidence against speeders through the town may soon be in the hands of the Norwood police.

Last Wednesday night, police and town officials witnessed a demonstration of the electromatic radar speed meter which has proven so successful in other towns and cities of the Commonwealth in their drive to cut down speeding within their borders.

Town Manager Walter A. Blasenak, Acting Police Chief James M. Murphy, Selectman James J. Drummey, and Patrolman George Sanborn, witnessed an actual demonstration of the radar speed meter and during the test, four violators of the town speed laws were booked, one of the cars for doing 62 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour zone on Route 1.

The machine was set up for the demonstration by a Brookline police officer, Leslie MacMurray, who was brought here by Robert Cal-lam, representative of the Automatic Signal Division of Eastern Industries, Inc., makers of the radar device.

For the demonstration in Norwood, the machine was hooked up to the Brookline police cruiser car, at a spot on Route 1 just north of the Factory Mutual Building.

When the approaching cars were able to spot the officers and the machines too easily, the machine and test were moved farther up Route 1 near Morse Street.

A tape recorder attached to the machine automatically records the speed of the approaching cars and offers irrefutable evidence that the car in question was exceeding the speed limit for that area.
Norwood police were highly pleased at the results of the test and Town Manager Walter Blasenak will make a full report of the test to the full board of selectmen.

The machine can automatically check the speed of many more machines than a lone cruiser car could. It is also effective for both day and nighttime operation, can be used under all sorts of weather conditions, can easily be set up in any location and thus moved around to various localities, and is useful for investigating neighborhood complaints of speeding.

The set was brought here for a debut as a result of a motion offered by Selectman Walter J. Dempsey at an earlier Selectmen’s meeting.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Norwood Messenger