Police Cars: The Different Types And Officers That Drive Them.
By Reporter Joseph Toth
Washington Micro Bank BBS
Submitted 07-22-08
In the past I’ve been asked by a youth “is there a difference between unmarked police cars and undercover police cars?”
A very good question.
The answer is ‘YES’ there is a difference. A uniform marked police car stands out in crowd because of it’s markings and vehicle mounted lights and other equipment.
A unmarked squad is just that, … a actual squad car of the same make and model of a marked police car but without the external markings and lamps. A unmarked squad has it’s colored lights operating from inside the vehicle rather than from a roof mounted system. Also a unmarked squad can be any solid color. Some popular colors for these cars are black, copper color, silver and different shades of brown.
A undercover police car on the other hand is meant to be undetectable by the public eye. These vehicles can be just about anything in any color.
Of coarse fitting the description ‘undercover’, these police cars are intentionally undetectable by the public eye. They don’t use color lights, they don’t have spot lights, they don’t have stubby radio antennas.
Undercover cars aren’t driven by uniform police officers, … they are driven by police officer wearing regular civilian type street clothes.
These vehicles could be anything from a $200.00 rusted out car all the way up to a $80,000.00 pimped out Hummer, or anything in-between.
The officers driving them can look like anything from a business man to a gym teacher in athletic clothes to a regular house wife in a mini-van.
Undercover units and officers usually work crimes like drug activity, vise squad, white collar crimes and so forth, … the types of investigations where the police don’t want the bad guys knowing police are around.
Federal law enforcement vehicles like the F.B.I. And U.S. Marshall Service operate much like the description of undercover vehicles.
The myth that you can spot a Federal Agent because they have vehicles with Government plates is totally false.
Although the Fed’s may have vehicles that have Government plates on them, … such vehicles in their fleet would be for formal use only, not for the actual crime fighting or investigations.
Identifying a Federal agent in public is next to impossible. They bend over backwards to conceal their occupation and identity from the general public. Actually it’s possible to live next to a Federal Law Enforcement Officer for more than thirty years and never know it, regardless of how well you thought you knew them.
You could be in the supermarket check-out line, and the person buying groceries in line behind you could be a Federal Officer, and you’d never know it. If you think background checks will help you identify a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, … guess again!
“NO WAY JOSE”. They aren’t out there to be discovered by the public.
Another thing about Federal Law Enforcement is, … unlike your local police department They have no set jurisdiction. They go anywhere! They can even follow a suspect out of the country. In short, ... you can't run from the FED's.
There is the difference between the different types of law enforcement vehicles and the officers that drive them.
