Police departments have apparently found a loophole for "unmarked" cars.

Doraville police cars were black with dark grey letters for a while.

Luckily they painted the tank to make it easier to spot:

NGTD wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: It's not about protect and serve. It's about revenue collection. That's a shame.

Right there is the correct answer. It has happened up here , as well. The OPP have been turned into a cash register for the provincial govt. In fact, a well marked cruiser without an officer in it is actually quite an effective tool to keep speeds in check.

I can remember the OPP parking unattended , marked cars on 401 on-ramps on holiday long weekends, just to get folks to slow down.

BrokenYugo wrote:

84FSP wrote: The most impressive/evil versions I have seen are the white extended cab F150's with ghost decals and tinted windows in Dallas. A white F150 is the best police camoflauge for Texas.

I can beat that. A few years ago the cops (I think there's still more than one) in the small town I grew up in got themselves a new F-150, gray, barely marked, with a matching camper shell. Completely invisible Grandpa truck.

Back in the late 80's I pumped gas at a station near a PA State Police barracks. Once in awhile, they would stop to get gas. Sometimes in unmarked "interceptor" cars used on the nearby PA Turnpike. They had a Mustang LX 5.0 notchback of course, but the most evil unmarked car they had was a gold Chevy Citation.

you know, I have mixed feelings on this. I would have a hard time pulling over for a car that wasn't marked well enough for me to easily read it as I drove by. OTOH, if I was the one running speed enforcement I'd probably be setting up radar in an unmarked car and then using marked chaser units. They do that with marked cars parked on overhead bridges with no interstate access on I-75 sometimes. Bridge guy clocks you and dispatches one of the hundred cruisers waiting just over the hill to stop you.

I'm not a big fan of speed limits, obviously, but there is a time and place for enforcement. Sadly it's usually near the end of the month when dollars are down.

Ian F wrote: They had a Mustang LX 5.0 notchback of course

In the late 90's Oregon State Police had a white Fox Mustang GT. 5% tint on the windows, lowered on chromed 17" Saleen wheels, civilian plates and zero markings whatsoever. It would pace you on Interstate 5 and hang out in your blind spot long enough to make you uncomfortable. As soon as you sped up the lights inside the car and behind the grill started flashing. It was a total entrapment device intended to incite races. A group of lawyers got it shut down after a few years, but almost everyone I knew with any sort of enthusiast car had at least one ticket from it.

I don't speed so they ain't getting me no matter what they drive

Ian F wrote:

BrokenYugo wrote:

84FSP wrote: The most impressive/evil versions I have seen are the white extended cab F150's with ghost decals and tinted windows in Dallas. A white F150 is the best police camoflauge for Texas.

I can beat that. A few years ago the cops (I think there's still more than one) in the small town I grew up in got themselves a new F-150, gray, barely marked, with a matching camper shell. Completely invisible Grandpa truck.

Back in the late 80's I pumped gas at a station near a PA State Police barracks. Once in awhile, they would stop to get gas. Sometimes in unmarked "interceptor" cars used on the nearby PA Turnpike. They had a Mustang LX 5.0 notchback of course, but the most evil unmarked car they had was a gold Chevy Citation.

Don't know if they have them in your part of the state now, but the state police Ford SUVs running as unmarked here in SWPA are downright evil. Unless you're looking at the grill or top of the rear window they blend in perfectly. One of my first rants after joining here last March was seeing one of the Ford escape unmarked cars tailgating people up to 70 in a 55 then kicking the lights on.

Latrobe has marked black cars with grey letters, city of Greensburg has a Mazda 3 and a focus as unmarked cars. But the state troopers with the "invisible" suvs are just nuts.

Jumper K. Balls wrote:

Ian F wrote: They had a Mustang LX 5.0 notchback of course

In the late 90's Oregon State Police had a white Fox Mustang GT. 5% tint on the windows, lowered on chromed 17" Saleen wheels, civilian plates and zero markings whatsoever. It would pace you on Interstate 5 and hang out in your blind spot long enough to make you uncomfortable. As soon as you sped up the lights inside the car and behind the grill started flashing. It was a total entrapment device intended to incite races. A group of lawyers got it shut down after a few years, but almost everyone I knew with any sort of enthusiast car had at least one ticket from it.

When I drove from Davenport to Joliet every other weekend in the late 90's I got to know the Friday night state troopers in SS Camaros and Mustang GTs. No markings but they would pace you and pull on you for a reaction. I was driving either a Diplomat or a Dakota so neither one really called them over to me.

In reply to chandlerGTi:

I usually flip off people who try to race me on the highway. I wonder what kind of reaction that would get.

Knurled wrote: In reply to chandlerGTi: I usually flip off people who try to race me on the highway. I wonder what kind of reaction that would get.

I had one of the first Dakota R/Ts in purple but they never picked at me, it was still a pickup. I wouldn't have run them anyway even when gas was cheap that thing drank it when you stood on it.

NGTD wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: It's not about protect and serve. It's about revenue collection. That's a shame.

Right there is the correct answer. It has happened up here , as well. The OPP have been turned into a cash register for the provincial govt. In fact, a well marked cruiser without an officer in it is actually quite an effective tool to keep speeds in check.

DeadSkunk wrote:

NGTD wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: It's not about protect and serve. It's about revenue collection. That's a shame.

Right there is the correct answer. It has happened up here , as well. The OPP have been turned into a cash register for the provincial govt. In fact, a well marked cruiser without an officer in it is actually quite an effective tool to keep speeds in check.

I can remember the OPP parking unattended , marked cars on 401 on-ramps on holiday long weekends, just to get folks to slow down.

IIRC, it actually worked quite well. Better police visibility will almost always make the roads safer than ghost cars handing out more tickets.

RCMP out here are using unmarked Ford Fusions.

I got pulled over by one while I was being a hooligan in a customers '57 Fuelie Corvette.

He let me off with a warning, thank goodness.

IPD has been running those for several years now. So much so that those stand out to me more than normal marked cars. I still remember the time a friend backed into one in the parking lot at my work.

Westmoreland, Tennessee was the first place I saw these cars. Black cars with black ghosted markings with a low profile light bar parked in the shade at the bottom of a hill.

slefain wrote: Luckily they painted the tank to make it easier to spot:

That's not a tank though.

Local State Police have used unmarked Coyote Mustangs for a few years now. I met an officer that drove one that had been kitted up to look like a GT500 (correct body panels, wheels, stripes, badges, everything) after a training crash damaged the front end. It was seriously sneaky.

They like to use unmarked white Ram trucks in construction zones too.

About 10 years ago in MD the Higheay Patrol took the empty squad car technique to the next level and got a few fiberglass profile shells of Caprice cruisers and propped them up in "hot spots". The locals started tipping them over before too long and they shortly thereafter faded away.

In reply to RevRico:

Yes, I see unmarked (and stealth-marked) Explorers often. To the point where any Explorer I see will make me to pause. It has become the Crown Victoria of today.

Hopewell Twp in central NJ used to park one of their old Crown Vics on various roads as a decoy to get drivers to slow down. To add to the deception, they would even dress a maniquin (complete with cap) and prop it up in the driver's seat. I haven't seen it in a few years.

Indiana State Police have plain white Ram 1500 and Ford F150 trucks with a small hard to see at a distance logo on the door that they use in construction zones. Their reasoning is that they wanted the public to slow down when they see trucks on a construction site to make it safer for the workers. I'm sure the same reasoning is used for the pseudo unmarked cars. It's been said already but traffic cops aren't law enforcement they are revenuers for the local gov't.

Ian F wrote: In reply to RevRico: Yes, I see unmarked (and stealth-marked) Explorers often. To the point where any Explorer I see will make me to pause. It has become the Crown Victoria of today. Hopewell Twp in central NJ used to park one of their old Crown Vics on various roads as a decoy to get drivers to slow down. To add to the deception, they would even dress a maniquin (complete with cap) and prop it up in the driver's seat. I haven't seen it in a few years.

The Police PPV Explorers are for sale new thru a variety of places and continue to tempt me for a family truckster. I really dig them with the big black steelies. With a downpipe and tune on the ecoboost they move really well. Not sure how I'd like the stripped down interior though.

E36 M3 like this is why EVERYONE should contest EVERY speeding ticket, whether you have legitimate grounds to or not. Make the juice not worth the squeeze.

I can't think of any specific municipalities locally that use the "ghost" decals, but I've seen them plenty in my travels. I agree that it's a shady tactic, but they're still easy enough for me to spot if I'm paying attention. Another one that hasn't been mentioned yet is the porta potty speed cameras Maryland seems so fond of using in work zones (drive on 15 through Frederick, just north of I-70 sometime if you want to see an example.) You can pick out the innocent crappers from the speed traps, though, because the active traps always have an unmarked, nondescript van or SUV parked immediately behind them.

What bugs me more than anything these days, actually, is the Crown Vic losing it's strangle hold on the police market. Everyone knew CV = cop until proven otherwise, and with the front marker lights inboard of the distinctly square headlights they were even easy to spot at night from quite some distance. Now you have to be on the lookout for any of about a dozen different models of car with completely indistinguishable lighting.

John Welsh wrote: Popular Internet image...

hyperbolic language aside, it has a point.

We are more interested in putting people in the system (either arrest, ticket or what not) than protecting and serving.

EDIT: As apparently said 10 times before in this thread.

Police have all sorts of means of catching speeders: radar traps, cameras, aerial vehicles, unmarked cars, patrol cars, horses, bicycles, and foot patrols. Of these, unmarked cars are probably the least of my concern.