Russia Traffic Police has recently begun deploying unmarked units to patrol the streets. Fun fact is that they aren't allowed to have lights and sirens and they have to patrol in uniform, so they are pretty easy to spot. Operatives, on the other hand, drive ordinary civilian cars and the only time you notice them is when they put a gun in your face lol 

9 hours ago, Hastings said:

Russia Traffic Police has recently begun deploying unmarked units to patrol the streets. Fun fact is that they aren't allowed to have lights and sirens and they have to patrol in uniform, so they are pretty easy to spot. Operatives, on the other hand, drive ordinary civilian cars and the only time you notice them is when they put a gun in your face lol 

How are they supposed to signal people to pull people over without lights and sirens? With a gun, again? And people call the U.S. police aggressive.

Police/Sheriff/State Police or well any emergency vehicle is a government vehicle.As for unmarked we have some. No decals/stickers or lightbars. All lights are on the inside and the only police markings besides some not having tented windows is the most widely used police tool the spot light and some have a "pushbumper/ram bar/brush guard" whatever you wanna call it.  Most of the ones around here go to detectives but they are good for traffic units/traffic enforcement because they can hide so good. Now if you are talking about DoD or HLS vehicles I see HLS around here every now and then which they are cool looking but that is rare.

12 hours ago, unr3al said:

How are they supposed to signal people to pull people over without lights and sirens? With a gun, again? And people call the U.S. police aggressive.

They have no legal authority to pull anyone over without lights and sirens in an unmarked vehicle. So they don't. They wait and approach on foot, like here:

https://youtu.be/HSfrCdNRDI8?t=126

And I've slightly exaggerated, Russian police seldom even touches their weapons. Sometimes plain clothes officers don't even receive them. 

Most unmarked police cars have certain traits that are the same as the marked ones! They are usually going to be black,white or silver. Let's say your town has Tahoe's and Chargers for full marked units, well, the unmarked are more than likely going to be a slicktop Tahoe or Charger with no markings.I am not sure how it is in other parts of the United States, but, unmarked will usually keep their municipal plates.Most of the time,if they set up their unit in such fashion,you can tell by the spotlight and/or antenna's or steelie rims.

 

It's easy to tell when you run their plate and it comes up as registered to the county or a municipality.

That or you know who is in it. It's a small world at home in your area. I have noticed though a increase of surplus vehicles some having nearly everything left on minus lights, sometimes. Mostly lately fed auctions have been putting out  unmarked p71s and 9c1s with everything minus the transceiver and lights. Then I have seen some folks literally re deck the car out installing amber leds inside. Why idk but some states it's pefectly legal but you will get that eye as only 2 (well 3, LE pov or VFD but you know who the 3rd is and not a concern at all) kinds of people have re outfitted a old surplus unmarked. The first is sky warn and ares folks who have permits etc. Second well you can probably guess that one.

Unmarked vehicles are very common in Australia with officers usually driving plain Holden Commodores or Ford Falcons (white or black) with minimal lighting, however recently I've seen the WAPOL deploy Ford Territory's with even less lighting (one lightstick facing forward, another facing backwards) that are really hard to spot.

A few years ago you could easily spot an unmarked patrol vehicle due to the abundance of antennas on the rear of car, but now they blend in so well it's nearly impossible to spot one unless you can actually see the lighting equipment in the windows.

17 hours ago, Illusionary said:

A few years ago you could easily spot an unmarked patrol vehicle due to the abundance of antennas on the rear of car, but now they blend in so well it's nearly impossible to spot one unless you can actually see the lighting equipment in the windows.

I was driving on the highway the other day (going over the speed limit, sorry) and as I looked over one lane to my left, up came an all black Chevy Tahoe with heavy black tint, but I could clearly see LED lights mounted in all of the windows. I had never seen the vehicle before and I slowed down a tad, despite the fact that it was actually going faster than I was when it passed me. I then noticed it had a plate from another state, so I resumed my "regular speed". No idea what that vehicle was or who it belonged to. It was not a 'GO' plate but it was totally unmarked, and I've never seen that vehicle used by any agency in the state it was from. Maybe it was a personal vehicle.

Edited January 15, 201610 yr by unr3al

In NSW (Australia) the general duties unmarked cars are usually these:

They also have other cars but the Holden Omega's are generally the main choice of car. On the contrary to that they have marked variants:

Although they are slightly outdated now as this generation of the Commodore is slowly being replaced by the new VF Commodores, and the new Ford XR6's which kinda look like Fusions in the front.

Highway Patrol, on the other hand, is slightly easier to spot. As most of Australia is outback, and NSW stretches pretty far into that outback, so the stations which are situated far from the coast have big long range antennas so they can communicate from roads in the middle of nowhere. You don't really see these unmarked cars with massive antennas close to the coast. They are still pretty easy to spot because of the lights, and the fact that they only use 2 types of cars...

I've noticed that most of the HWP cars are now marked, it's probably some scheme to get drivers to slow down. They generally do these taskforce's and give them stupid names like "Operation [blank]" where they send out more units onto the major highways over holidays where a lot of people are driving. It's a good idea but sometimes the names are cringeworthy XD.

I hope you enjoyed my essay about NSW Highway Patrol unmarked units :D

On 15/01/2016 at 8:37 AM, unr3al said:

I was driving on the highway the other day (going over the speed limit, sorry) [...] I then noticed it had a plate from another state, so I resumed my "regular speed".

I am aware that this is off-topic, but what is it going to take to teach you why the speed limits are there? Are you going to have to be in a crash where you or another party is injured before you'll figure out "I should probably obey the speed limit"?

For your sake and the sake of others, please don't speed. It isn't worth it. It's better to arrive somewhere late than dead.

17 hours ago, Pipeline said:

I am aware that this is off-topic, but what is it going to take to teach you why the speed limits are there? Are you going to have to be in a crash where you or another party is injured before you'll figure out "I should probably obey the speed limit"?

For your sake and the sake of others, please don't speed. It isn't worth it. It's better to arrive somewhere late than dead.

I don't need to justify my driving to you or anybody else, but brushing up on your physics wouldn't hurt for future reference. Common highway speed is about 70mph in several U.S. states. (I can't speak for England, because I don't live there.) Texas as an example, (which is about three times the size of the U.K. on its own) wants to raise their speed limits to 85mph in some places. If you were to take a look at basic formulas for g-force, you'll be able to note that a crash into a solid wall at 70mph would result in an instant g-force on the human body of 98 g's. A crash at 85mph into a solid wall would result in 120 g's. Wikipedia states that a g-force of 50 g's or higher is considered lethal, so at either speed a crash into a solid wall would result in a fatality.

Although, I would try and avoid any highways that have solid walls built into them.

These are the formulas for your reference:



Speed limits in the U.S. are largely determined by surveyors; their job is to scout out certain roads over time, monitoring traffic flow, housing population, police traffic stops, traffic accidents, road conditions and road design to work up a number of what they believe is safe. The residents of a neighborhood, town or state can request a re-evaluation of the road to either raise or lower said speed limit at any time. These requests may not always be granted, but the fact that their job exists is a testament to changing road designs, vehicle safety features and rules and regulations of the road.

All of that being said, I never said I was going either 70mph or 85mph for that matter. I have a perfect driving record as of this writing. Zero tickets, zero written warnings, default insurance rates for my age bracket. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a traffic citation at some point in my life, but so far, so good. It took my mother about 40-45 years to get one, but she got one. It's a part of regular life. Now that I've said my peace, at this point, I'd like to ask you to let local law enforcement handle the local law enforcement, and the residents of the U.S. decide what safe speeds are for their own streets or highways. Our two countries are not completely alike in reference to our road systems and population density.

Edited January 17, 201610 yr by unr3al

Here in Connecticut, every state police cruiser is "unmarked" with lightbars. Although, there's a few slicktop cruisers that are undercover. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

I notice my town (all black with lightbars, a few marked) and some towns around me follow the same style. Some cars are solid black with crystal clear LED lightbars, some cars are solid blue with lightbars, and so on. It saves money I suppose when not having decals and it's somwhat unique. I've yet to see any other police department in the world do what some departments in Connecticut do. 

Because of this trend, unmarked government cars are difficult to notice around here. Usually they're Chevrolet Tahoes, which people seem to suspect less. I've never actually seen a Chevrolet Impala in service ever before, so around here you can pass one without having to worry at all. 

Edited January 17, 201610 yr by Original Light

18 hours ago, Original Light said:

Here in Connecticut, every state police cruiser is "unmarked" with lightbars. Although, there's a few slicktop cruisers that are undercover. 

That's really sketchy. I'd be very hesitant to pull over for something with absolutely no markings on it but with a full police package attached to it. That looks like an auctioned off CVPI with all of the decals stripped off. I'd actually be inclined to report that vehicle to local police if I saw one sitting around. I've heard of "stealth" cruisers with semi-transparent liveries, but I've never seen a totally paint stripped but fully equipped car like that in my life.

Edited January 18, 201610 yr by unr3al

On 1/18/2016 at 1:29 AM, unr3al said:

That's really sketchy. I'd be very hesitant to pull over for something with absolutely no markings on it but with a full police package attached to it. That looks like an auctioned off CVPI with all of the decals stripped off. I'd actually be inclined to report that vehicle to local police if I saw one sitting around. I've heard of "stealth" cruisers with semi-transparent liveries, but I've never seen a totally paint stripped but fully equipped car like that in my life.

Around here, since we see them all the time, I suppose everyone knows it's the state police. But maybe an old lady wouldn't. 

Here's my town, which followed a similar trend when they had all Crown Victoria's. Now they're starting to do half and half, some with "POLICE" markings and some all black like before. I should also add  that all CT State Police LED lightbars say "State Police" in the middle of the lightbar, which is the only marking. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 201610 yr by Original Light

Here in the Netherlands they have them covered up pretty good. The only lights that are actually on the vehicle sit in the grill and mirrors. If they want to be more noticeable they just pop on one of those small equipable lights. Accept for Highway Patrol they have a big "stop police" sign behind there rear windshield. 

In my town in Indiana, they have gotten rid of their marked cars, and went to unmarked's. Also, they are unmarked's, not "undercover's" Undercover's would be police officers in civilian clothing with no lights or anything in their car, that defeats the purpose of undercover's. Anyway. We have a Ford Tarsus and Ford Explorer. Out county uses Unmarked Chevy Impalas, and our Sheriff has a Blacked out Tahoe. The marked County Cars are a Van, Chevy Impalas, F150 (K9 Only), and 2 15 Tahoe's. But every unmarked in Indiana to be able to stop a car in an Unmarked they must be in uniform or report it to the police in the area. But the Unmarked's are very noticeable.

On 18/01/2016 at 3:59 PM, Original Light said:

Around here, since we see them all the time, I suppose everyone knows it's the state police. But maybe an old lady wouldn't. 

Here's my town, which followed a similar trend when they had all Crown Victoria's. Now they're starting to do half and half, some with "POLICE" markings and some all black like before. I should also add  that all CT State Police LED lightbars say "State Police" in the middle of the lightbar, which is the only marking. 

 

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omg that black crown vic looks sketchy

42 minutes ago, Play3r2 said:

omg that black crown vic looks sketchy

I think you meant to say sexy. :D 

9 hours ago, Original Light said:

I think you meant to say sexy. :D 

That too... but I would be very hesitant to pull over for that.