MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Talk about an undercover cop!

[PepperElf]

We were driving down a rather popular road earlier this week, during rush hour - headed to the dog park....

Suddenly I realized just what I was looking at... a black Chrysler 300 with completely tinted windows.... and nice flashy lights on the grill.


Traditional undercover cars don't look like that. My BF and I make a game out of spotting undercover cars so I've learned some of the usual "tells".

But this one ... nope. Nothing.

We figured it was impounded from a drug bust and converted to an undercover car.



Oh and yeah, it was stopping people in an area where people love to speed. Cos even with the police lights on it, it was pretty low profile.

[Shalom]

I read somewhere, (perhaps MotorCop's blog, I don't remember) that the cops had set up a speed trap that didn't look like one. There was a marked police car at the side of the road, lights flashing, with an ordinary-looking car pulled over in front of them with its hazard lights flashing. Everyone assumed the cop had pulled this guy for speeding and figured the cop had other things on his mind, and would go zipping right past . . . and then the unmarked Dodge Charger would shut off the hazards, light up the hidden red&blues, turn on the siren and go zooming out on the road after the hapless speeder.

[protege]

Here, we had cops dressed up like highway workers attempting to nail speeders. They'd sit near a construction zone, and would call the 'real' cops further ahead. Didn't last long, because several of the local news stations had fun with it. Many drivers would simply exit I-79, and get on parallel Route 19 instead. Then they'd re-enter 79 further down, well after the speed trap.

[PepperElf]

I LOVE IT!

One of my former coworkers had a bug up his ass about seeing a cop posed as a broke-down motorist with the hood open. On the other side of the hood the cop had the radar gun out.

(I always figured he'd gotten a ticket or something)



We have some good spots on the main road here for cops too - no tricks needed really, just the layout of the land and road often gives them some good vantage points. Such as some areas where the road curves, or is on a hill... by the time you see the cop it's too late.

[pitmonkey]

Around here the state police cars can be anything (with or without state plates)

[Aethian]

Many drivers would simply exit I-79, and get on parallel Route 19 instead. Then they'd re-enter 79 further down, well after the speed trap.

Actually that was brilliant. It meant very few people going through a construction zone.

[An Haddock]

We're a restaurant town/artsy crafty town and constantly have people crossing the main street to go from place to place.

In New Jersey it's state law that you stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk as long as it's not a controlled intersection. read: one with lights - they have to abide by the Walk/Don't Walk signs in those like we have to abide by the traffic lights.

Anyway, we have problems with people zipping through crosswalks ALL THE TIME. One of them is just a hundred feet outside our store's front window and from my perch I see near misses there ALL THE TIME. A guy who owned a store up the street from us actually got hit by a car a few years ago and it knocked the hairpiece right off his head.

So a couple of summers ago, our town and a few others in the area started setting up traps. They'd have a plain-clothes officer attempt to use the crosswalk and anyone who didn't stop for them suddenly found a police car pulling them over and issuing a ticket.

It seemed to help a little, but people get back into their old habits quickly.

[Javarod]

About 15, maybe 20 years ago, Connecticut state police bought a batch of Mazda 626s in random colours for unmarked duty, i think that's my favorite program. Funniest one i can think of off the top of my head that i've seen would be the Lincoln Town Car used that i saw on I95 in VA, that was a good one.

[protege]

Actually that was brilliant. It meant very few people going through a construction zone.

Unfortunately, Route 19 isn't really designed for high-speed traffic. Once you get south of Washington, PA, the road goes from 4 lanes to 2 and twists all over the place. Too many blind corners, homes built right up against the road, sharp curves, all of which make it dangerous. North of Washington, the road was widened in the 1950s--the interurban railway was gone, and the original road couldn't handle the traffic. Now, 19 is clogged with traffic and there are lights at every corner.

Speaking of Route 19, be careful if you're driving through Mt. Lebanon. It's heavily patrolled, and if that wasn't enough, there are radar signs on the traffic lights. These will trip at as little as one mile over. Before those went up, the borough used a "dummy" unit. That is...a real cruiser...with a mannequin behind the wheel! For years, they used it to scare people into slowing down. That is...until one night when someone broke into the car and stole the dummy

[PepperElf]

Around here the state police cars can be anything (with or without state plates)

gotta be careful with that in some areas though.

i heard about a case in chicago (i think) where some undercover cars were registered to a fake name ... and one of the cars got towed. problem is, by the towing regulations they could only be picked up by the owner... and since the cops had used a fake name, they couldn't get the car back. !

[Arcus]

Utah Highway Patrol has 2 unmarked Mustang GTs in central Utah. I pass them so much that I can see them pretending to be a break-down from a long way away. The Sheriff has several dark gray Dodge Chargers with tinted windows that do the 'broken down car' trap as well. It works well for them.

[ADeMartino]

Before those went up, the borough used a "dummy" unit. That is...a real cruiser...with a mannequin behind the wheel! For years, they used it to scare people into slowing down. That is...until one night when someone broke into the car and stole the dummy

A township near where I used to live did something similar - stuck a dressed mannequin inside a cruiser prominently on the side of the road. It lasted about a week. Seems someone broke into the car and gave the 'dummy' cop a companion - one of those inflatable sex dolls.

[Chromatix]

British police use unmarked cars quite often too. They like to get a variety of types of car these days, so that criminals don't just play it safe when they see a particular type of car hanging around. Every once in a while, they even hire a HGV cab and use it to keep an eye on lorry drivers' habits - the extra height is crucial for seeing what's really going on in there.

The trick of pretending to be "already busy" isn't used much over here, but it's an interesting one for use on wide-open highways. I think more often there'll be a laser operator (laser speed detectors can operate at very long distances) working in concert with a traffic patrol car.

[Slave to the Phone]

I read somewhere, (perhaps MotorCop's blog, I don't remember) that the cops had set up a speed trap that didn't look like one. There was a marked police car at the side of the road, lights flashing, with an ordinary-looking car pulled over in front of them with its hazard lights flashing. Everyone assumed the cop had pulled this guy for speeding and figured the cop had other things on his mind, and would go zipping right past . . . and then the unmarked Dodge Charger would shut off the hazards, light up the hidden red&blues, turn on the siren and go zooming out on the road after the hapless speeder.

I was part of this once. I was riding to work and a motorcycle cop that I knew flashed his lights at me and I pulled over. When I asked him what was up, he said he was going to show me a trick. I like tricks so I was watching his hands while he explained that the trick was that some bonehead (his word) was going to think that he was too busy with me to notice people speeding. Sure enough, he had barely finished telling me that when off he went to ticket a speeding tailgator.