How to spot an unmarked police car

[anonymous-user]

TooMany2cvs said:

DSGbangs said:

Normally, unless a tech is road testing it, a police officer driving it is a good giveaway.

Yeh, you'd think the uniform would be a bigger giveaway than peering to read the tiny text on the bottom of the plate.

Haha. Exactly

[Dave Hedgehog]

Marty Funkhouser said:

A surveillance car is unlikely to be used to pull people for speeding?

Fair points on the others - this is from my limited experience!

it may not be actively hunting them but if you blat past it doing many leptons they may take an interest

[RacingPete]

Dave Hedgehog said:

in london they drive pretty much anything of any moderate age, had a 60 volvo estate go by me this morning

but i have seen just about any common car you can think of as an unmarked vehicle in london, incl SUV's, a ratty white transit and a shiny gun metal metalic VW Van

My friend works for the fire brigade, and a lot of the unmarked cars with blue lights in London are theirs as part of rapid response.

[TooMany2cvs]

Marty Funkhouser said:

TooMany2cvs said:

Yeh, you'd think the uniform would be a bigger giveaway than peering to read the tiny text on the bottom of the plate.

Its not that easy to spot the top half of a uniform in your rear view mirror on a day with good weather let alone your standard UK day. Anyone in a white shirt can look like old bill in your rear view.

Oh, yes. Good point, well made. You're right - it's SO much easier to read the tiny text at the bottom of the plate...

[FlyingPanda]

I think the style of driving is one of the biggest giveaways. If you take all of the relatively fruity BMWs and Audis that aren't being driven like a tw***, you will have cut the numbers down to less than 10%. Then add in the list of checks mentioned by the OP and you'll probably have a BIB.

[Marty Funkhouser]

TooMany2cvs said:

Oh, yes. Good point, well made. You're right - it's SO much easier to read the tiny text at the bottom of the plate...

I'm not arguing that - just that the uniform can be hard to spot sometimes. Especially when you only have a few seconds to decide what to do.

[Johnny 89]

Marty Funkhouser said:

Don't forget this needs to be stuff you can pick out in your rear view mirror at whatever speed you happen to be going on the road.

The hardest spot is at night where you have nothing but the shape and type of headlights.

A good one for night time driving is Police will not have from fog lights on.. Many others will.

[STe_rsv4]

Marty Funkhouser said:

I figure there are a few tell tale signs with an unmarked Police car, some obvious, some maybe not - and I'm sure I've missed a few things:

- Car never likely to be more than 3-4 years old
- Will be in good condition
- Will be relatively clean
- Unmodified
- Likely to be a saloon, SUV or estate
- Likely to be a well known manufacturer - BMW, Volvo, Ford etc
- Should be a driver and a passenger
- Likely to follow at a set distance for a mile or so
- Likely to be Grey, White or Black - i.e. unlikely to be bright red

This is all in my limited experience of seeing unmarked cars having pulled people over and having been pulled over once myself by one.

Anything I've missed or any of these criteria seem false?

So basically, this could apply to 95% of the cars on the road every day. Good luck spotting them!

[nicanary]

When I'm following what I think might be an unmarked car, but want to overtake, I look for a towbar (nil) and anything "personal" in the car, such as a dangling air freshener or some sort of Poundland mascot or sticker. Plod never have anything in or on their cars to show private ownership.

[anonymous-user]

On the M40 this morning an individual had just been pulled by a BMW similar to the above. It's all about the safety, no really....

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 15th March 15:02

[HantsRat]

Long gone are the days where lights are drilled into body panels. Most of our unmarked cars now have the blue integrated into light clusters and wing mirrors, near on impossible to spot. Moving away from the dash mounted light too.

[Grunt Futtock]

littleredrooster said:

My experience, after looking around a good few Police compounds is slightly different:

- Car never likely to be more than 3-4 years old Oh no - some are right old nails!

Indeed, back in about 2005 I remember being gobsmacked seeing a sheddy looking unmarked Volvo 440 pulling over some lads in a Corsa.

[fastbikes76]

IanH755 said:

The Octavia seems to be a popular choice in Kent recently, seen 3 different ones (2x Blue, 1x Grey) on the M20/M2.

They have a Lime green, blood red and electric blue Skoda estates running round Kent with GN prefixes.

• not correct colour names but that's my take on them.

[cbmotorsport]

I've got a white Octavia VRS Estate, it's clean and relatively new, I often get the car in front slowing to the speed limit, and checking their rear view mirror far more than they normally would.

[littleredrooster]

Marty Funkhouser said:

A surveillance car is unlikely to be used to pull people for speeding?

I thought they cleaned them before every shift?

Also I thought they had to have 2 officers to give you a ticket?

Fair points on the others - this is from my limited experience!

Sorry, your OP didn't mention solely being used for pulling people for speeding. I just took it as general purpose, unmarked Police cars.

[Pickled Piper]

Local plods unmarked car was a five year old Nissan Primera, in green and unwashed. I only know because I witnessed them pulling over a badly driven vehicle. Without the blue lights flashing you would not have a clue.

[guindilias]

slipstream 1985 said:

It's just not cricket nowadays. You used to see a vauxhall omega in your rear view mirror and 101% of the time you knew.

Back when I was a nipper, drinking in the backstreets - hear a diesel stop at the bottom of the alleyway and sit idling. Nearly always a cop car, normally a Granada. The cops would come striding up the alleyway saying "Don't run away or we will arrest you!"
Would they feck, a 13 year old kid can outrun a cop in a flak jacket and carrying his gun, radio, baton, etc. any day of the week!

[SS2.]

Marty Funkhouser said:

Also I thought they had to have 2 officers to give you a ticket?

Not at all.

If we're talking speeding in England or Wales, then on a road other than a motorway, one plod and some form of corroboration would be required. This could be another officer, but it could also be a speedometer, VASCAR, stopwatch, etc.

On a motorway, the opinion of one plod without any corroboration could be enough to secure conviction.

[strain]

Back in 2005/2006 got pulled over by a mk4 fiesta undercover, was in a mk4 fiesta myself and thought it was too st to be undercover

[MYOB]

I have given up trying to spot them. They can be impossible to identify until it's too late. Thus I simply drive sensibly. Of course I exceed the speed limit on motorways, but hopefully not in a way that is dangerous or worthy of a ticket.