Under Cover or Unmarked Cop Cars, Why?

[steamloco76]

I have no problem with the State Police having unmarked cars.

Not real fond of the small town police using unmarked vehicles though. Some of the part time small town officers get to be really sneaky pests in their stealth cruisers. One local cop loves to tailgate people with his high beams on. When they get pissed and nail the brakes, he hits the lights. He doesn't do it to write traffic offenses, he uses the stop to pad his DUI and drug arrests. Another trick he uses- sit on the main street and when a car passes by yelp the siren, If the driver crosses the center line he pulls out and does a stop for crossing the center line which lets him snoop the driver and car.

 

[jgh4445]

Best unmarked car I ever saw was a John Deere tractor at hay bailing time. Trooper just sat on the tractor in a hay field along side the interstate with a radar gun and a radio. The Trooper a mile up the interstate would make the stop. That was in the late 60's when I-65 to Montgomery was more of a racecourse.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Yep. Using unmarked cars, or the trendy markings that are barely visible, or hidden lights to work traffic show that it isn't about safety or deterrence, but revenue.
If it was about deterrence, they would still use the old high profile light bars and easily recognizable paint schemes.

Well, our office gets $35 per ticket so I'm good with that

 

[Faulkner]

I believe the police need better cars. A skateboard will out run the Crown Vic. The new Ford Intercepter is still way to heavy to handle a corner. The unmarked cars are still easy to spot because of the wheels, hub caps, antena, and lights. The police need cars that blend in like a Toyota Camery or a mini van. I find it interesting that day after day the local police are there in our school zone in plain site, lights flashing, and people still speed in the school zone. I do not get it.

These days a bad guy might very well be able to outrun a police crusier, but it's hard to outrun a Motorola radio.

 

[Arik]

The problem with unmarked police cars is that it makes it easier for a non-police officer to impersonate a real police officer. Uniforms are not that difficult to get, but marked police cars are.
Further, a good many civilians will not stop for an unmarked car.

Not really hard to get a marked car. All one needs is some fancy looking leters or if you are careful enough just some colorful ductape. But the easiest way of all is just to buy a used WHITE police car that wasnt cleaned properly. That glue from the decals gets dirty and black on a white car. From 2 feet away looks official

All that is just glue and paint discoloration

 

[keith44spl]

LEO's drive unmarked cars for the same 2 reason dogs lick themselves...

Because, they can and it feels good.

Wells, right thar ya go!

From The Moon Dawg himself!!!



.
On The Other Side

 

[mkk41]

LEO's drive unmarked cars for the same 2 reason dogs lick themselves...

Because, they can and it feels good.

And because ya blend in , ya don't have to worry about some bothersome civillian in need seeing ya and flagging ya down for assistance.

And with the windows rolled up and A/C or heat on full tilt ya don't hear the gunshots or citizens yelling for help!

 

[REM 3200]

The local small city where I am a reserve police officer has 2 unmarked police trucks (they do have a small oval "Police" emblem on the doors)
equipped with all of the necessary blue lights -- it is much easier to creep up on illegal activity or maintain surveillance without being immediately identified as a police unit.

It is devastingly effective on the interstate (the city fronts 6 miles of I-10) -- no one seems to notice or care about a pickup truck parked on the shoulder of the interstate -- we don't bother to pull anyone over unless they are going 82 mph or over (speed limit is 70) -- any evening or weekend, in a 4 hour stretch, for example, we will easily stop 16-20
folks going in the high 80's or low 90's -- they just zip up to and past us and we get a radar lock, activate our lights and make the stop -- most are very surprised to be stopped by a police truck. We often put a dog crate in the truck bed (lots of folks in this area have hunting dogs and lots of folks have dog crates in their truck beds -- I always have one in the back of my personal truck) -- it completes the "it's just a normal pickup truck in south Louisiana" look and adds to folks just ignoring us as they speed by. Funny thing, when we stop folks who have illicit drugs on board, we have figured out that they automatically
assume we have a drug dog in the back of the truck (we don't) so they often "come clean" immediately when we ask if they have any illegal drugs in their vehicle.

Is Sulphur still running their speed trap on I-10 ?

 

[Rule3]

Back bout ten years ago, I was working drug interdiction.

We all used discreet vehicles. I had a black Mercury Marauder.

Got a lot of rolling meth labs and dope on traffic stops.

Most times, a marked unit er two around close.


.

Gee A Black Mercury Marauder, now that's a real stealth looking car, No one saw you coming. It is a COP car.

Now a White Mercury Marquis down here would blend nicely.

 

[keith44spl]

Gee A Black Mercury Marauder, now that's a real stealth looking car, No one saw you coming. It is a COP car.

Now a White Mercury Marquis down here would blend nicely.

Rule,

She weren't all that stealthy with the blues on....

At least not the nite they's shot er all to hell and then ram'd it...

With me hang in thar...Like a hair in a buscuit!

Dave

 

[Rule3]

Sure glad you came out of that alright!

Barb had(has) one of those. I always wanted one. Tint the windows and play Cop

Popular Mechanics did a piece on that car compared to the Interceptor. Basically the same other than extra cooling, batter suspension.

They went with the Dodge Challengers, Chargers around here, Those are harder to spot except why do they use the basic rims and flat ugly color. That gives them away.

Highway Patrol with their Mustangs (cars for you Western folk) are the best. Don't see those coming.

 

[moosedog]

The problem with unmarked police cars is that they full boat you on your coffee and donuts when you use the drive thru.

 

[feralmerril]

We have a hot mustang in our area that patrols I-15 here. It is painted a bright blue and white raceing theam. Either they dont pay good retirement here or the patrolman assigned it is haveing too much fun driveing it as he looks almost as old as me! I bet once in awhile he must get some clowns that pulls alongside of him wanting to race!

 

[shouldazagged]

We have a hot mustang in our area that patrols I-15 here. It is painted a bright blue and white raceing theam. Either they dont pay good retirement here or the patrolman assigned it is haveing too much fun driveing it as he looks almost as old as me! I bet once in awhile he must get some clowns that pulls alongside of him wanting to race!

And wouldn't that be hilarious!

 

[Doug M.]

The problem with the Mustang and similar vehicles is that they are too darned small; I can barely get in or out in casual clothes, and I'm only 6'1/230. I never cared for unmarked cars working patrol, because I wanted the people I was contacting to be as confident as possible that I was real deal. I also preferred the better lighting options, without as much glare inside from the inside mounted lights, and I really liked the arrow on the back of the light bar.

For pure traffic, like WSP's mission, there is an argument for the unmarked cars and the weird ones, like the Volvo wagon. However, there are also real issues with people, especially women, being concerned that the stealth cars are impersonators. Most stops should be made by fully marked units.

I was really bothered by WSP because for years they had unlawfully tinted windows in a lot of their cars, and when they got enough pressure about it, instead of having the integrity to fix the cars, they went to the legislature to get an exemption for LE vehicles. This makes the unmarked car concerns even worse, and reflected the lack of understanding and core integrity at the management level. I came real close to giving one of their Sergeants a ticket for the windows on his patrol car before the exemption was enacted.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

On a somewhat related note, how many LEO's here have/had a vehicle
where they could turn off one headlight if they felt the need?

I know of two around here over the years, one was a driven by our
local Conservation Officer and the other was a local Twp Cruiser.

I've done some ride-alongs with our local Twp and the last I knew
they had the ability to prevent their brake lights from coming on.

 

[Doug M.]

We had that in a car I used to drive, because you could not move the shifter out of park without pressing the brake pedal, which gave away your location and movement - a big no-no.

 

[keith44spl]

Switches, switches, we all got sum switches........

On that black car in my post above, I had a brake/tail light switch

as well as a extra low beam on the drivers side fog. That I could run that all on it's own.

Used that when sneakin' into hikin range of them meth lab and such goings on...Out on the rural route.




.
Shoot Low Sheriff...He's Ridin A Shetland

 

[Moonman]

What's a little REVENUE ENHANCEMENT amongst friends?

 

[Terry C]

What I like is up here the unmarked cars are not unmarked per se. They have graphics on them, that are only slightly lighter or darker than the black paint of the car they are on, and they are only visible from the sides. On the very rear of the car, well there is the plate hunter system, so really if you know what those things are, then you know what you are looking at. The NYSP have cars that have no light bars but have all the paint and graphics so that they are not true unmarked. I remember when I first started the only unmarked cars was our old patrol/Veterans Affairs/County nursing home/health department/Corrections car after everyone else got done driving it first. It wouldn't matter if we ever needed to drive fast (we don't) that old heap couldn't do it and even if you could, the brakes were bad so it couldn't stop.

The GSP has some Chargers like that, they are a metallic gray with orange graphics that are almost invisible except dead-on.