How to spot an unmarked police car

[Marty Funkhouser]

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?

I should add I am mainly referring to motorway unmarked cars.

Edited by Marty Funkhouser on Wednesday 15th March 23:28

[Marty Funkhouser]

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.

[Marty Funkhouser]

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.

[Marty Funkhouser]

Pintofbest said:

I think your criteria capture about 50% of the cars on the road, if not more.

The two mirrors one would dramatically cut that figure.

I am just talking about cutting the odds a bit - of course there are no hard rules but there are certain cars you can dismiss instantly.

[Marty Funkhouser]

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!
- Will be in good condition ...unless they're as rough as a badger's botty!
- Will be relatively clean Erm, no. Often filthy to blend in.
- Unmodified Agreed, probably
- Likely to be a saloon, SUV or estate Yup
- Likely to be a well known manufacturer - BMW, Volvo, Ford etc Yup
- Should be a driver and a passenger Almost all recent 'pulls' I've seen on the motorway were single-crewed
- Likely to follow at a set distance for a mile or so Not sure
- Likely to be Grey, White or Black - i.e. unlikely to be bright red Oh no - I collected a fluorescent yellow demonstrator from a Police force not so long ago; it had been used as an undercover surveillance car...

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!

[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.

[Marty Funkhouser]

battered said:

Good luck. There are thousands of unmarked plod cars driving about with few distinguishing marks and people in normal clothes. I saw Leeds CID a few years ago when a stolen car of mine was recovered, the police looked like a slightly chavvy darts team out for a night and 3 of them got in a very plain Astra. If you are goi8ng to slow down every time you see a grubby Astra with 3 blokes in it wearing hoody tops then you may as well give up and drive at something approximating to the speed limit. I've also seen Leeds Homicide Investigation Dept out in a plain car, or at least I'm told on good authority that I have, suffice it to say that I didn't notice them. Mind you a few seconds later I went through a Toyota Starlet's windscreen, so I had better things to worry about than a few coppers, especially since I've never killed anyone.

I was really talking about unmarked Police cars that are used to patrol motorways primarily to catch speeders. Of course the Old Bill have an array of cars for a variety of reasons but the ones that are used to patrol up and down motorways catching speeders are the ones I was originally talking about.

[Marty Funkhouser]

yonex said:

As I see it the roads aren't 'policed' they're set up to generate as much revenue as possible, education is what is needed not this very odious system we employ, that's if this is about road safety, which it isn't IMO. Of all the stops how many are really finding wanted felons, are you seriously trying to suggest that the primary reason of an unmarked car is not to catch speeding motorists, it would seem entirely the opposite to most people?

I don't have any problem with unmarked cars. I got caught once fair and square, went to court and took my punishment. The officers don't set the limits and given the standard of a small minority of idiot drivers in this country they need to be enforced otherwise these morons will undoubtedly kill themselves and other people. I asked the original question on this thread as I think its fair enough to know what to look out for - this is only going to make you more vigilant as a driver?