identifying police cars

[pixil9]

K.. i know there's the missing hubcaps and that's about it? Any other tips on seeing them on the road easier?

[kanjus_paki]

black fleet sticker on the license plate

[t-im]

ehh I dunno...u can just usually tell it's a cop car...iduno..maybe it's just me..

[AllGoNoShow]

not all of them have missing hub caps btw, just majority. Look for a cop dude in the seat, someone talking on a radio, spot light, they can be hard to see on some crown vics cause some of them car black so they match right up with the mirror but yah. look for extra sets of lights in the headlights and in other places.

[EK 2.0]

look for POLICE in big blue letters on the side...

as well as lights on top of the car...and listen for sirens too...

[africano]

I can usually see the undercover crow vics because they got 2 lights in the back of the car. At eather side of the 3rd brake light.

Big squares.

[ryder_23]

For ghost cars, side mirror lights, rear view mirror lights, pretty much any lights...

cps, look for little digital radio antenna on the trunk to either left/right side i forget.

rcmp, look for bigger antennas.

As well, most cop cars dont have daytime running lights. Thats all i can think of besides the obvious.

[googe]

black fleet sticker works well when youre coming from behind

[RSX.04]

Yeah, the fleet sticker has saved my ass a couple times. :nut:

[badseed]

Originally posted by googe
black fleet sticker works well when youre coming from behind

^ That sounds somewhat homosexual :rofl:

[Go4Long]

some of the newer ones are gettin harder to spot...the undercover intrepids don't even have rear window tint on a couple of em, they just make it look like the lights on the back window are part of the front head rests...I was impressed, almost blew by one one day on deerfoot...it was kinda funny.

other than that...if you are lookin close enough the mirrors are bigger than on most cars(because there's lights in em of course).

[DreammEr]

Originally posted by CycloneAWD
look for POLICE in big blue letters on the side...

as well as lights on top of the car...and listen for sirens too...


lol

[QuasarCav]

-Police interceptor plaque on the trucklid.
-Black inlay on the trunklid.
-Black hubcaps with chrome centres
-Bigger than average tires
-Crimestoppers sticker on bumper
-Lights in back window
-Cage built in the back

They are not hard to spot, If you are driving enthusiastically (read speeding) you should be checking every car around you and those coming of overpasses. These cars are harder to spot with a passing glance then when you are actually scanning every car.

[soupey]

k the guy is obviously talkn about ghost cars, not normal cruisers, stop being useless and talkn about police written on the cruiser itself.

as for the main question, i think the most common way is to look for the black sticker on the license plate...there are two strobe lights put into the back behind the backseat headrests, one blue one red...

also radar/laser vans on deerfoot

often parked on the shoulder, no lights, some of them have a logo on the opposite side not facing the road that says "stop at red lights" or smthn...u can usually tell if theres some HUGE thing in the middle between the front two seats...they can stop on the side of the road and jus sit bak and let the radar do its job, so yea try to look through the rear windo, even if its tinted u migth b able to see the outline of the radar gun between the driver and passenger seat...best thing to do is to slow down whenever u see any van or cruiser looking car on the side of the road though...

[MidnightDreamer]

Yea, I always look for the red blue lights inside the car if they're comming up from behind... They're usually right on top of the dash... But just as a rule of thunb, and crown vics, intrepids... I'll slow my ass down... I've only had 2 close encounters... 1, I was merging onto Deerfoot, a little quick about 115kph... but I slowed down right after... This crown vic guns it up right behind me, freaked me out... followed pretty close for about a min, I could make out the cop lights, but he decided to leave me alone and took off... The second time I really should've been busted... I dunno what happened... My friend and I were semi-racing back to his gf's house... Weren't speeding too heavily, but merging onto 16th from shag, we gunned it and swung across several lanes. He was ahead of me when he hit the breaks pretty hard, I knew he'd only do that if he thought he saw a cop. We followed for a while and got close enough to see the black stickers... Dunno if he saw us, but the dude never did anything so I'm assuming we got pretty lucky...

[import_illusion]

what's a fleet sticker look like? lol

[teamPRO]

It says like FLEET PR on a black sticker on the license plate. A good thing to look for tho is the big antenna. even like undercover intrepids and shit have em.

[Ryan@DerdallDesigns]

Police interceptors ( crown vic.) Dont have daytime running lights. So if they are coming from behind and only the p.lights are on its a good chance its one of them.:thumbsup:( obviously this would only work in the daytime.)

[cloud7]

I also notice some cop unmarked SUV's (white Durango's and such) have very small numbers on the front fender in front of the doors near the top...

Photo Radar vans are easy to spot... there are 5 of them in the City... usually you still have time to slow down if you spot them as you are passing them, because pictures are taken in front of the vehicle.

[cboyspimp]

they have a big honking piece of shit out the side of the drivers mirror..

[bspot]

^ its called a spotlight :rolleyes:

[Seanith]

Originally posted by cboyspimp
they have a big honking piece of shit out the side of the drivers mirror..

Thanks for the heads up.. :rolleyes:

[ryder_23]

Thinking back, the most undercover Crown vic i have ever seen was in vancouver.

It had silver hub caps, no marking, no antennas...i was at a traffic light beside him, he kept looking at me..thats when i notice a tiny little light on his front right side, similar to picture i have posted.

i rolled down window, and i could hear same radio chatter from his car, that i had from my police scanner. It remind me exactly of the cop car like in blue streak, just different light bar. Probably a detective car. And from cps at night, just look for glow from there computer, lights up the car fairly well :thumbsup:

[pixil9]

right on.. thanks
yes i was talking about undercover lol

the big tires thing.. never noticed that

[GTS Jeff]

hm i just slow the fuck down for every single crown vic i see..

[LUDELVR]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
hm i just slow the fuck down for every single crown vic i see..

Haha, I did that on the highway to and from lethbridge and almost all of the time it was a very old couple!! haha, fucking fossils!! Funny thing is that they would be speeding too! :dunno:

[Mikey_008]

Windows tinted so dark like there's no tomorrow!!

[boy1_]

one of the things i notice is that there are two antenna's on the roof quite often, not upright springy antenna type, but rather a round disc about two inches tall. And on the suv's you can usually see the front lights under the grill.

[AcuraTl]

i dunno maybe its just me, but most of the ghost cars are the FORD sedans??? i dunno wha tmodel they are but usually whenever i drive by sum1 in that model i get scared shitless cuz i think its the police 1/2 time it is, 1/2 time it isent.....

http://www.loganfamily.ws/matt/cmass/images/9_28_2001/scaled/still001.jpg
somthing like thi smebe?

[Seanith]

AcuraTL, thats a rediculous picture in your sig :rofl: :rofl:

[Phy]

AcuraTL - they use the Ford Crown Vics because they've got a V8 in 'em, they're RWD, they're big and menacing, and they've got enough room to stuff a few lawbreaking jackasses in the back. Plus, it's the police interceptor so the cops are already used to driving them.

I think maybe the most sure way to ID a ghost car is to do 20-30 over the limit trying to put some distance between you and the sedan-driving asshole parked on your tail... and then the flashing lights go on...:banghead:

[noodles]

14th usually has 2 dark colored minivans that are new, with windows tinted like they painted the window black, i have also noticed that sometimes they have the dome light on in the car at night sometimes. i usually slow down to any vehicle parked on the side with window tinting, sometimes they use the silver tint, but i havent seen it lately

[lude_grl]

ive seen the silver mini van
looks really really new
and uhm
its usually on crowchild
ive seen it twice now

[Ryan@DerdallDesigns]

Originally posted by Mikey_008
Windows tinted so dark like there's no tomorrow!!

That mostly applies to the K9 units.( We did a whole crap load of those for remote starts and dispatch notification after that incident last year where the dogs died from AC failure.)

[Chris88CL]

Not all police vehicles are easy to detect.

They have one maroon suburban that fooled me. I was filling up with gas at Shell on 17th ave + 5 st and he pulled up behind me for gas. When he got out I obviously could tell he was a police officer, but the suburban was the best ghost car I've ever seen. I actually had to ask him if it was his personal vehicle or a ghost car. He laughed and told me it was a ghost car and he mainly patrols deerfoot trail.

We talked for a few minutes and he gave me a brief tour of the truck. I was 3 feet away and couldnt see the hidden lights. Every other car I've had no problem figuring out it was a cop. The intrepids, durangos, and even the tactical teams blue excursion are easy to spot. This guy definately would have nailed me speeding on the street if I hadnt talked to him first.

Now I slow down everytime I see a maroon suburban on deerfoot, lol.

BTW, the undercover cars DO have daytime running lights. They have a switch that blacks out all exterior and interior lights including the dash. It even dims the clock lights to the point where its barely visible. Check it out for yourself if you dont believe me. Its labelled "Surv Mode" and on the police package impalas its located just to the left of the steering column by the headlight switch. Damn switch is $80/pop from the dealer too.

I used to have a 2000 police package impala as my daily driver :) The cops liked to harass me about the spotlights on the A-pillars.

[cboyspimp]

fuck i hate cops:whipped:

[tomsweet1990]

you're all missing the one thing that i "think" is the only thing all cop cars have in common without being a cop....black mirrors...
they never have the colored mirrors that most cars have...even some of the chryslers...

[SikAssR1]

The Intrepids are the tricky ones to look out for, theres always one that I saw when me and buddies were riding on crowchild. You can kinda spot the blue/red flashers in the rear window if your close enough. (windows have a slight tint to them) But IMO the crown vics are pretty easy to spot, if you dont see an old couple up front it usually are cops.

[Kenny_boy]

if oyu are pulling up on the side, look through the drivers side window to see if there is a radar gun or RPM gauge on the dash, I can never remember which it is, never been in a pig ride before... but yah, you can normally see them if your parked at lights or pulling up on the drivers side....

Also, look to see if the plates are Albertan or Canada... and getting back to the fleet sticker... it is a black sticker that goes on instead of the month and year stickers.... And if they don't have a fleet sticker, look for license plate frames on them, if they have a frame around the plate, it isn't a cop, if it doesn't, pass with caution....

[Seanith]

Originally posted by Kenny_boy

Also, look to see if the plates are Albertan or Canada...

WTF does a "Canada" licence plate look like?

[Kenny_boy]

It has 5 letters and digits, white back groudn with blue lettering

[SikAssR1]

I think if its got a "Canada" plate, its a military vehicle?

[Chim]

Are ghost cars generally white? All the ones I've seen are, but maybe that's because I can't spot the sneaky ones :nut:

[AllGoNoShow]

They used to have ALOT of white ghost cars, now they are all colors, I still remeber the white vette that pulled some guy over on Highway 2.

[finboy]

i've seen a 92 caravan radar vehicle, there are a TON of ghost cars that you wouldn't be able to tell from regular traffic.

i remember a year and a half ago there was some posts on here about a riced out cavalier and gold civic that were both ghost cars.

easiest bet, don't speed and you won't get a ticket ;)

[HuMz]

i know there is a few in alberta that are impossible to detect, i got fucked over driving into edmonton from sherwood park on baseline road, saw a nice looking 2 dr chevy blazer parked on the side, was black, limo tints, looked like it had aftermarket fog lights and running boards, next thing i know i see a flash in my rearview, could not believe that would go that far to disguise themselves