unmarked police cars, necessary or just plain sneaky?

[vonhosen]

blakeypj said:

An unmarked car is just the best way to see drivers driving in there own manor and enviroment. For instance tailgating, massively over the speed limit, on the phone, reading maps to just name a few!
There are here to stay! You have to be carefull where you stop people due to the fact it is a unmarked car.

[tallbloke]

blakeypj said:

driving in there own manor

Edited by tallbloke on Saturday 29th July 06:45

[k321]

i am amazed that people that drive fast never realise they are being tailed. I saw a superbike and a tvr recently going about 130mph and 100 metres behind was a bmw unmarked cop car following them. whenever i see the following cars following me i always slow down- skoda octavia vrs, ford mondeo st, bmw 5 series silver estate, 3 series, volvo s60.

i drive a volvo s60, and it is hilarious driving on the motorway at night, if i see someone fly past me i speed up and follow, and 9 times out of 10, the speeding drive slows down to 70, this is not illegal right what i am doing?

[vonhosen]

k321 said:

i am amazed that people that drive fast never realise they are being tailed. I saw a superbike and a tvr recently going about 130mph and 100 metres behind was a bmw unmarked cop car following them. whenever i see the following cars following me i always slow down- skoda octavia vrs, ford mondeo st, bmw 5 series silver estate, 3 series, volvo s60.

i drive a volvo s60, and it is hilarious driving on the motorway at night, if i see someone fly past me i speed up and follow, and 9 times out of 10, the speeding drive slows down to 70, this is not illegal right what i am doing?

You exceeding the limit is illegal, if that's what you do tailing someone else.

[silverback mike]

k321 said:

i drive a volvo s60, and it is hilarious driving on the motorway at night, if i see someone fly past me i speed up and follow, and 9 times out of 10, the speeding drive slows down to 70, this is not illegal right what i am doing?

Hi viz jacket on the parcel shelf for daytime 'patrols' as well.....

[davidra]

In my experience, unmarked cars do not pull for mild speeding (<90 m'way) and if you're not observant enough to spot them, you deserve the ticket. Of course if practices change and the observation levels required to avoid prosecution become unfeasible, I will change my stance to oppose unmarked cars.

At present I like their apparent focus on exceptionally dangerous & poor driving.

[anonymous-user]

davidra said:

if you're not observant enough to spot them, you deserve the ticket.

i take it you havent had the pleasure of sitting in one. 'mine', i did pay for it after all , had no ariels and nothing on the dash. so according to you due to my poor observation, or rather lack of psycic powers, i obviously deserved my ticket, court appearance, fine and the last 5 years of stupid insurance quotes. yeah really proportional that one.

[leosayer]

I'd be happy for more plain cars for the reasons stated above, but I'd be pretty pissed off with them if I got a pull for 80mph on a clear m-way.

[davidra]

I did say "in my experience"...

My point was more about the fact that they seem to target the idiots ... of course there can be exceptions. As I said, when they start (or increase rate of) targeting 80mph on a clear m/way they will lose my support.

dave

[k321]

i will try the high viz jacket on the parcel shelf as i got one from work.

[john57]

davidra said:

I did say "in my experience"...

My point was more about the fact that they seem to target the idiots ... of course there can be exceptions. As I said, when they start (or increase rate of) targeting 80mph on a clear m/way they will lose my support.

dave

If they target people doing 80mph they should be very easy to spot as the car will be stationary on the hard shoulder every 50 metres while they give out a ticket

[tallbloke]

john57 said:

davidra said:

I did say "in my experience"...

My point was more about the fact that they seem to target the idiots ... of course there can be exceptions. As I said, when they start (or increase rate of) targeting 80mph on a clear m/way they will lose my support.

dave

If they target people doing 80mph they should be very easy to spot as the car will be stationary on the hard shoulder every 50 metres while they give out a ticket

They won't, the ticket will come through your letterbox ten days later.

[oldie]

If the emphasis could be moved from exceeding the limit ( on motorways ) , (within the reason of discretion) to dangerous /bad driving / causing congestion ( like sitting in L2 of a three lane motorway with L1 empty ) thus restoring our motorways to less congested ( and hence safer places ) i for one, and possibly a lot more people would be more than 100% behind unmarked police on motorways.

If we could just get back to the basic precept of motorways - driving in the left lane least congested( that afforded safety) , the other lanes could be used for overtaking, removing the anger from those who wanted to drive at the limit. Unfortunately ,like thoughts of this Govt, the LEFT is not the place to be.

[7db]

john57 said:

If they target people doing 80mph they should be very easy to spot as the car will be stationary on the hard shoulder every 50 metres while they give out a ticket

Still nothing from your chaps who wanted to see what my car would look like in a blue light...

This brings up an interesting point about what constitutes a "request to stop" (as posted elsewhere for regular readers).

It's illegal not to stop for an officer in unifrom when requested to do so, but what about the clarity of that request?

Should you stop for blue lights?
Do you have to hear him say "stop"?
Do you need to see a sign saying "stop"?
Is jabbing a finger aggressively the internationally accepted sign?
In the dark, behind tinted glass windows, with glaring lights?
etc

[gilberninvader]

there's a local S.Wales site which highlights those unmarked police cars for the benefit of other drivers !
for example:-
Mondeo CK54BHP Dark Blue
Vectra NV52 XHY Dark blue
BMW CN05 EYT Grey
Volvo CN04GSU Purple /blue
Mitsi EVO CN06 DBX Black


Other makes include VW caravelle type bus, BMW X5, Range rover black, Merc Eclass estate silver, other BMW 5 series

if you know others why not post and let us know WHY?

[Imperialism2024]

Reading this thread brought to my mind two points.

First, regarding stops in an unmarked car: how can it be safe for drivers to pull over when a driver is signalling without lights? I know that I wouldn't stop for anything short of either flashing lights or a blatantly marked car. In this day and age, it can't be safe to just pull over for anyone waving you to do so. Very easy way to do some carjacking, in my book.

Second, I'm glad that here in the United States, at least in the Northeast region, "unmarked" cars are as easy to spot as picking out Crown Vics with a second antenna and (usually) a metal divider between front and back seats. Oh and they're either white or black. Also, in Pennsylvania, all police vehicles, whether marked or unmarked, have solid blue municipal plates, whereas civilian vehicle have white plates with blue and yellows bars at the top and bottom, respectively, so it's easy to confirm a car as being police. At any rate, I'll just treat any black or white Crown Vic with two antennas as marked car until I can see the license plate...

[k321]

drk blue volvo s60 t-5 GL54 plate (coventry)
Honday Civic 5 door black (coventry) 54 plate

grey 3 series and grey 5 series on the m6 birmingham

Bmw 330 Coupe drk blue 55 plate in Leamington Spa driven by a skinhead cop

metallic blue ford st220 55 plate in coventry

nxt time i will keep a record of the car registrations