by Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 15/98) - It's called the VG2 and it could cost you $115 plus your radar detector.

The VG2 is a device used to spot radar detectors, which are illegal in the Northwest Territories. The Yellowknife detachment is currently in possession of the $1,800 electronic apparatus -- in effect a radar detector detector.

"It picks up a signal off a radar detector," explained traffic control Const. Shawn Pollard, who has the VG2 back in his patrol car and used it to nab another driver who disobeyed the law last weekend.

Pollard used the device last winter to stop 30 tractor-trailers on the winter ice roads, where the speed limit is 25 km/h. Many of the trucks were coming from Alberta and they were equipped with radar detectors. In addition to the $115 fine, the radar detector is seized and destroyed.

Not surprisingly, many drivers provide an excuse in hopes of avoiding the ticket and the loss of their radar detectors.

"A lot of people don't know it's illegal. Well, they plead that," Pollard said. The VG2, which has a range of one to two miles, is used by other RCMP detachments in the North but it is owned by the Department of Transportation in Hay River.