How do you tell them apart or you just slow down whenever you see them?
How do you tell them apart or you just slow down whenever you see them?
Rims and tires - generally speaking, Police Package Crown Vics run a steel wheel (black) with no spokes. They are heavy but strong and can handle a certain amount of curbing, off roading, etc... (marked and unmarked units) Tires appear to be a "healthy" size.
GPS Pod on Roof - Some LEOs in larger metro areas have a small black GPS pod on the roof of their vehicle (marked and unmarked units).
Trunking Antenna - Still used in many areas for communication.
Police Interceptor Badge - Self-explanatory. Have been seen on marked and unmarked units.
Rear Mount Radar Antenna - Either on driver's side or passenger side corner of rear windshield. Small and cylindrical.
Uniformed Person in Driver's Seat - Self-explanatory. I contrast this with someone wearing their baseball cap backwards/sideways with music "pumping."
Bars on the rear side windows - may be hard to see through the tinted glass, but can be present on marked/unmarked.
LED lights on side mirrors - may be hidden, but generally speaking, if a car is used for Traffic enforcement and/or Highway Patrol Duties, they will be equipped with better lighting equipment.
Push Bar/Cow Catcher - a blacked out push bar located on the front bumper. It may be surrounded by LED lighting that appears clear.
Feel free to add on to my list...
Laptops and radar antenna's a pretty good give aways
Also if in doubt sit back and watch the response to the guy that misses it and blows the doors off it.
And if you're in FL and its doing 10-15 under the limit, it probably has an AARP member.
^ Great stuff, both.
That's also primarily how I differentiate between the two. And note: it's not good to piss-off a detective, either.
I'd like to add one obvious one:
Non-standard license plate.
In Miami the old police cars get auctioned off and are real popular among certain customers. If you see an old beat up interceptor, there is usually some dude with the seat reclined all the way back driving with one arm and some cheap purple tint falling off the windows. So, if you see a crown vic here, its a cop, an old person, or a drug dealer...
Usually an antenna or two gives the cops away. However, certain cops (detectives for example) can have handheld radios with no antenna at all, right??
If I remember correctly in NC, when I did a ride along (attempted murder investigation) the detective had only a handheld radio and one light above the rearview mirror. It was a matching red crown vic that didnt have the black accents and didnt say interceptor anywhere. Oh, and he had fully automatic weapons in the trunk. The only guy that he followed in traffic was on the way back from the investigation around midnight who made an erradic lane change so he followed him. The guy did seem drunk, but he didnt break any laws in the 30 seconds that we followed him before he pulled into a drive way. The detective called in his plates and it was his house, so we left.
Last edited by 9500ier; 10-23-2008 at 06:49 AM.
I'd just like to point out this is not 100% reliable, and shouldn't be trusted to make absolute decisions on whether or not a car is an unmarked police cruiser. Often times you cannot make this distinction until it's too late.
The Cambridge, MA police department, for example, uses an entire fleet of crown vics with standard silver rims.
Locally here not even the marked slicktops have visible antennae on the outside of the vehicle.Trunking Antenna - Still used in many areas for communication.
Taxis can also have the police interceptor badge, and the Street Appearance package on the CVPI has just a regular Crown Victoria logo.Police Interceptor Badge - Self-explanatory. Have been seen on marked and unmarked units.
(Most of the times it's more likely to be an 80-year-old guy squinting to see the road ahead of him)Uniformed Person in Driver's Seat - Self-explanatory. I contrast this with someone wearing their baseball cap backwards/sideways with music "pumping."
Whoa, I've never seen a pushbar on an unmarked cruiser here before. FWIW the taxis here have pushbars too.Push Bar/Cow Catcher - a blacked out push bar located on the front bumper. It may be surrounded by LED lighting that appears clear.
Most of the distinctions given are good ones, but they are not 100% failproof and not all of them are easy to make at a safe distance.
The license plate can be very useful, but it varies by state and the main purpose of the vehicle. It doesn't have to be a dedicated traffic enforcement vehicle for you to get pulled over.
+1.
Thank you for that! I'd totally forgotten to add that all-important disclaimer!
Very good point, too.
Usually, true enforcement vehicles - even when they're many seasons old - will be relatively well maintained both aesthetically as well as mechanically.
If the vehicle in-question fails one or both of these criteria, I also, in my "mind-shuffle" put another card into the deck of "it's probably not a cop-car."
That's why I tend to give the "that guy/gal's obviously an LEO" types a wide berth.Usually an antenna or two gives the cops away. However, certain cops (detectives for example) can have handheld radios with no antenna at all, right??
If I remember correctly in NC, when I did a ride along (attempted murder investigation) the detective had only a handheld radio and one light above the rearview mirror. It was a matching red crown vic that didnt have the black accents and didnt say interceptor anywhere. Oh, and he had fully automatic weapons in the trunk. The only guy that he followed in traffic was on the way back from the investigation around midnight who made an erradic lane change so he followed him. The guy did seem drunk, but he didnt break any laws in the 30 seconds that we followed him before he pulled into a drive way. The detective called in his plates and it was his house, so we left.
This goes all the way back to that ancient "10 Tips for Fearless Flying" article printed in a car-rag long, long ago.
I always try to make definitive visual ID, if I'm at all suspicious.
The way to think about this is that, practically speaking, you're only losing seconds - or maybe just a minute - of road-time, for a savings that could turn out to be a half-hour (and many dollars) in the making, should that suspicious-looking vehicle be an enforcer.
And this leads well to:
PRECISELY.
For IL, white with green lettering starting with M is a municipality vehicle (police, bus, etc)
White with green lettering starting with U is a university plate (usually not police, but about 1/100)
White with yellow IL state outline are state vehicles. The state police and county sheriffs have these.
There is also a fairly standard IL plate starting with a vertical MP, don't sure where it belongs.
If I'm coming up on a car I think might be cop, I'll flash my brights so see if anything reflective shows up.
Last edited by REBinc; 10-23-2008 at 08:50 AM.
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