Unmarked police - M4

Kemik

Kemik

Kemik

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Joined
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Hi guys,

Does anyone know of any rules around unmarked police cars? There seems to be at least one a day that I see going up and down of the M4 near Reading on my commute. They don't have "Police" in the rear window flashing and they're always various makes of cars.

They just seem odd. One passed me before and then switched the lights off when they got through the traffic. Makes me wonder if it is people kitting out their cars and pretending to get through traffic.
 
You mean an unmarked car doesn't have all its flashy lights on giving away that there may be an unmarked car sneaking up on you?!

How dare they.
 
They are a lot more stealthy than they use to be, What Car was it? Octavia VRS, 3 series saloons and A4's are popular around here.
 
kindai said:
You mean an unmarked car doesn't have all its flashy lights on giving away that there may be an unmarked car sneaking up on you?!

How dare they.
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It's more the fact that they aren't the standard, well known police vehicles that you would expect. The occupants aren't in uniform. There is no extra bits on the dash like the NPR screen. The lights aren't as bright and obvious when they are on as unmarked cars I've seen with uniformed officers in.

I've never seen so many unmarked cars as my commute to work. They certainly aren't around Reading town centre.
 
Kemik said:
It's more the fact that they aren't the standard, well known police vehicles that you would expect. The occupants aren't in uniform. There is no extra bits on the dash like the NPR screen. The lights aren't as bright and obvious when they are on as unmarked cars I've seen with uniformed officers in.

I've never seen so many unmarked cars as my commute to work. They certainly aren't around Reading town centre.
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I've not seen that many on my travels round reading. I've seen, what I would deem as a proper unmarked car (you can tell by the pixels), but not what I would be left umming or ahhhing about.

Have you got a dash cam with some footage of said car?
 
They hide the lights inside the grill and a lot of the interior equipment is hidden away now as well. I've seen the equipment being fitted (not ones for police use though, security services mainly) :)

On some you wouldn't even know it if you were sitting in the passenger seat. Though they probably don't make them quite THAT stealthy for the police.
 
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Unmarked police cars have giveaways if you know what to look for. They all without exception have a camera in the front windscreen. They will have LED lights built into the rear and front bumpers oblong and slightly bigger than the parking sensors, none will only have lights in the front grill.
 
Kemik said:
It's more the fact that they aren't the standard, well known police vehicles that you would expect.
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Wouldn't that be the whole point of them? I remember a few years ago when they started using Evo's and Impreza's here and people got annoyed because they weren't 'normal' undercover cars, usually down to them wanting to race then getting pulled over.

Next time you see it make a note of the plate and ring 101 and give the details you think it's possibly fake and see what comes of that.
 
Would certainly be worth lodging it as a query.

The impersonation of police and vehicles is certainly on the rise. Some very scary stories where impersonators are pulling lone women over in the middle of the night. Most being oblivious to the fact that it's not a real copper.
 
D3K said:
Get license plate, send police a query.
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Unlikely they will confirm the VRM of unmarked cars, keeping them as incognito as possible is kind of the idea.

I'm told there have been rare instances of organised crime groups 'cloning' a car, where they use a similar make/model/colour to a known unmarked car, with false plates, and then use it to commit crime, as anyone running checks on the vehicle would just see it as a police car and assume it was on a job. The powers that be certainly won't want to make it any easier to do this.
 
Like said there is tell tail signs. If daylight look at the grill etc

I also look at the number plate, custom plate? no police, is there any magic trees hanging up, how driver is sat and or passengers. Note the style of driving, though this will come with spending hours on the road yourself.
 
Finglonga said:
Unmarked police cars have giveaways if you know what to look for. They all without exception have a camera in the front windscreen. They will have LED lights built into the rear and front bumpers oblong and slightly bigger than the parking sensors, none will only have lights in the front grill.
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Sorry but that's totally wrong. Plenty of unmarked vehicles will have lights fitted covertly i.e. grille, front headlights/indicators, side repeaters, rear light clusters and in the rear windscreen, they won't necessarily be mounted on the bodywork where they're more obvious. Not all unmarked vehicles are used for roads policing either so they won't necessarily have or need ANPR cameras, data terminals etc.

Met Police for example have a plethora of unmarked vehicles used for various purposes that you'd never, ever expect to be police vehicles and are virtually impossible to identify as such unless they're lit up.

Unmarked vehicles aren't used solely by police either, a lot of senior officers for the ambulance and fire services will have unmarked vehicles although they do also tend to have a magnetic/roof rack mounted lightbar to use when working.
 
They're possibly not Police cars. Some A & E Doctors have blues fitted to their cars if they attend serious emergencies, likewise senior Fire and Ambulance Officers often use their own cars.
 
Finglonga said:
Unmarked police cars have giveaways if you know what to look for. They all without exception have a camera in the front windscreen. They will have LED lights built into the rear and front bumpers oblong and slightly bigger than the parking sensors, none will only have lights in the front grill.
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Not all unmarked police cars are traffic cars.


To point out the obvious, the police use unmarked cars for all sorts of reasons. Some detectives will travel in unmarked cars; surveillance is done in unmarked cars, some senior officer general use cars are unmarked, etc etc. Most of that stuff you mention is just in unmarked traffic cars. The rest have lights, but little else.
 
Finglonga said:
Unmarked police cars have giveaways if you know what to look for. They all without exception have a camera in the front windscreen. They will have LED lights built into the rear and front bumpers oblong and slightly bigger than the parking sensors, none will only have lights in the front grill.
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And there is always a second person in the car which is the easiest thing to spot. If there is only the driver it is not a police vehicle.
 
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