Police Cars

[hondarobot]

I was just outside, smoking a cigarette, and there's all these squad cars parked next to our building (there's a police station, which would explain that). I noticed that all the cars had a rear liscense plate that says POLICE on it, and nothing else. No numbers, tags, nothing.

What the hell is the point of that? It's not like a person wouldn't know what the purpose of the car is. Just wondering if anyone could think of an explanation to this mystery.

:?

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

I was just outside, smoking a cigarette, and there's all these squad cars parked next to our building (there's a police station, which would explain that). I noticed that all the cars had a rear liscense plate that says POLICE on it, and nothing else. No numbers, tags, nothing.

What the hell is the point of that? It's not like a person wouldn't know what the purpose of the car is. Just wondering if anyone could think of an explanation to this mystery.

:?

the point of it is to protect their sometimes corrupt (to make their quota) police officers............. think about it, when your lawyer says to you "What officer was behind the wheel of that Crown Victoria" you can say "that one" but the precinct can say well all the Crown Vic's look the same and that officer wasn't on duty that night...............

here in NYC the white&blue's have #'s but the detective cars 9 times out of 10 have the license plate door dropped down

I say 9 times out of 10 because as of late the detectives have been driving around in Dodge Caravans, Jeep Cherokee's, and Mitsubishi Galant's, all '05's and up. The Iacocca vehicles usually have a black tint to hide the video camera filming anyone they drive by (isn't that illegal?) while the Mitsubishi's all look stock........................

p.s. this is a great fucking thread

[meatloaf]

Are they filming a movie???

[xxMelania4uxx]

Actually I pointed out 2 Ruby that there were a New Series of Police Cars. i thought the New Design was cute.

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

the new NYC patrol cars are Dodge Magnum's & Chargers, State Troopers will have the more potent Dodge's supposedly with a supercharged 8 instead of the supercharged 6's NYC Chargers will again "supposedly" have........... very nice transition from the POS Canadian built Chevy Impala's currently on the road

[hondarobot]

Oh, I get the identifying the cars idea, and it is a good idea. The question here is that these plates don't have anything at all but the word POLICE. It just seems odd.

And no, they're not shooting a movie, unless it's the longest movie shoot in recorded history (the police station has been there for years).

What's really freaky now are the cops riding around on those Segue (sp?) things. They look like something out of blade runner and are almost completely silent.

I'll probably have to wait until tomarrow to see if anyone solves this riddle. Both my damn home computers are down at the moment, and I'm not sure what's wrong with either of 'em. Sigh.

[BeardedOne]

I thought only Albany had that generic POLICE plate on all of their cars. I figured it had something to do with the expectation that when the general public sees a vehicular crime being commited they invariably try to remember the plate # (Remember the cheerleading team that memorized the number as a cheer? :D "Gimme an 8! Gimme a 6! Gimme a 7! Now let's hear a five-three-oh-nine!"), thus making the copcars just another one in a crowd.

"Did you see the car that hit your Great Ant Regretta, Mrs. Kravitz?"

"Yes, I did! I told my husband, Abner, 'Abner' I said 'Did you see that? A police car just whacked Great Ant Regretta into the forsythia in the Steven's yard!'"

"And, Mrs. Kravitz, can you identify the exact police car that committed this heinous act?"

"Yes, I =can=! The license number was P-O-L-I-C-E! I saw it clearly!...Did I tell you the car was white with a blue stripe, and that Mrs. Steven's Uncle Arthur was driving it? And there were three arctic penguins in the back seat, smoking cigars!""

"Er...That will be all Mrs. Kravitz, thank you."

[BeardedOne]

They look like something out of blade runner and are almost completely silent.

I actually saw the Spinner (The police cruiser from Blade Runner) when it was on Display in Denver in 1981. I wished I had been one of the setup crew that got to drive it around on the convention center main hall floor after the show. It looked cool and had lots of twirly lights. :D

[hondarobot]

I thought only Albany had that generic POLICE plate on all of their cars. I figured it had something to do with the expectation that when the general public sees a vehicular crime being commited they invariably try to remember the plate # (Remember the cheerleading team that memorized the number as a cheer? :D "Gimme an 8! Gimme a 6! Gimme a 7! Now let's hear a five-three-oh-nine!"), thus making the copcars just another one in a crowd.

"Did you see the car that hit your Great Ant Regretta, Mrs. Kravitz?"

"Yes, I did! I told my husband, Abner, 'Abner' I said 'Did you see that? A police car just whacked Great Ant Regretta into the forsythia in the Steven's yard!'"

"And, Mrs. Kravitz, can you identify the exact police car that committed this heinous act?"

"Yes, I =can=! The license number was P-O-L-I-C-E! I saw it clearly!...Did I tell you the car was white with a blue stripe, and that Mrs. Steven's Uncle Arthur was driving it? And there were three arctic penguins in the back seat, smoking cigars!""

"Er...That will be all Mrs. Kravitz, thank you."

Hehe. That would be awesome if they all were intended to be vanity plates, but all the cops just kept picking the same thing to put on em.

:)

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

Various parts of NYC have practically become a police state..............

the little black cables stretched across the street to measure the average speed; the doubling of beat cops in nightclub areas on EVERY corner; and the stealthiness of the patrol car waiting for someone to run the green STRAIGHT TO red traffic lights

last night I was midway through a light because some asshole in front of me decided to drop from the 50mph he was doing to 15 (not an exaggeration.) I noticed a patrol car lurking on the corner of the light and pulled over and turned off my lights, the idiot drove right by me, turned down the next block (probably assuming I took off) and I just drove away. Word to the wise, be that asshole doing 20 in a 30mph zone, these officers are being pressured to make their quota and they will damn near try anything out of desperation..............

[Quinn]

last night I was midway through a light because some asshole in front of me decided to drop from the 50mph he was doing to 15 (not an exaggeration.)

This one drives me absolutely crazy. On more than one occasion I've found myself in a confrontation as a result of someone thoughtlessly slowing down while going through a light.

Here, in Riverdale, where I live much of the year, there are many wealthy older types that will think nothing of stopping their Mercedes or Lexus in the middle of an intersection – and just sitting there – while they decide which direction they want to go. It’s completely insane. For driving, this is easily one of the worst parts of NYC to live in.

-Quinn

[BeardedOne]

This one drives me absolutely crazy. On more than one occasion I've found myself in a confrontation as a result of someone thoughtlessly slowing down while going through a light.

Were they NY drivers? That sounds like such a Joisey thing to do. :smh

Our local postmaster once got rear-ended at a STOP (As in "=STOP="!) sign. The other driver got out and ran up to her asking "Why did you stop?". DOH!!

[flabbybody]

there are like 20 blue and whites parked on Vessey St every morning when I walk through the World Financial Center. They're either sitting in the cars eating bagels or milling about talking on cell phones. What are they there for? We're not talking about a major hub for street crime and drugs. And they wouldn't deter me if I was a suicide bomber looking to blow up people in the Financial Center. I don't understand why theyre not out trying to catch bad guys.

guess that's too dangerous

[Quinn]

This one drives me absolutely crazy. On more than one occasion I've found myself in a confrontation as a result of someone thoughtlessly slowing down while going through a light.

Were they NY drivers? That sounds like such a Joisey thing to do. :smh


While Jersey drivers are some of the worst in the nation, the credit for this maneuver, at least as it relates to my own experiences, rests solely with NYC drivers. Road rage is Social Darwinism :lol:

-Quinn

[BeardedOne]

there are like 20 blue and whites parked on Vessey St every morning when I walk through the World Financial Center.

How close izzit to the precint house? Even in the best of areas, they have to pass the baton sometime. You may be witnessing a shift change.


While Jersey drivers are some of the worst in the nation, the credit for this maneuver, at least as it relates to my own experiences, rests solely with NYC drivers. Road rage is Social Darwinism

Yah, really. After having logged hundreds of thousands (Dare I say 'millions'?) of miles over the years I have developed the wish that stoopidity be made a capital crime. I've driven cabs in Boston, limos in NY, Boston, DC, and Philly, and railway trains...<Thinking>...well...places, and it never ceases to amaze and horrify me at how many people that couldn't find their asshole with a wad of paper the size of a ham are given license to drive a one-ton weapon on the open road. :roll: :x :soapbox

[BeardedOne]

Izzit still accurate...?

In the mid to late seventies, in Brookline, MA (Where the cops worked for the highest bidders), someone told me that you knew when a squad car was in the area because they sounded like broken washing machines.

Sure enough, I was waiting at a bus stop one day and reading a newspaper when I heard "*Shnee-shnee-shnee-shnee*" and looked up to see one of the command cars sitting at the traffic light. Something about the heavy-duty alternator/generator or something, but damn! You could hear them coming from a mile away. :shock:

[goring]

based on some comedy bit i saw long ago, i've often thought that we should have a ticket system for stupidity - here's how it works:

we all carry paintball guns in our cars. when someone does something remarkably stupid, you shoot his car. then, when a cop sees a car with five or more paint splatters, he pulls the guy over and gives him a ticket for being a fucking idiot.

(before anyone actually takes this seriously - yes, i know it's dumb and wouldn't work. i still wish it would, though.)

[Quinn]

we all carry paintball guns in our cars. when someone does something remarkably stupid, you shoot his car. then, when a cop sees a car with five or more paint splatters, he pulls the guy over and gives him a ticket for being a fucking idiot.

Now that sounds like a great system. All the fun of paintball combined with the ability to punish stupidity. Nice..........

As an aside, one of the guys that I used to go to college with kept a paintball gun in his car so that he could shoot at cars that cut him off, etc. Not surprisingly, he eventually found himself in some rather serious trouble. Hey, I never said my friends were terribly smart.

-Quinn

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

[quote=goring]

As an aside, one of the guys that I used to go to college with kept a paintball gun in his car so that he could shoot at cars that cut him off, etc. Not surprisingly, he eventually found himself in some rather serious trouble. Hey, I never said my friends were terribly smart.

-Quinn

I'm not wasting my compressed air tanks or paintballs on some random tri-state non driving idiot, lol



Sure enough, I was waiting at a bus stop one day and reading a newspaper when I heard "*Shnee-shnee-shnee-shnee*" and looked up to see one of the command cars sitting at the traffic light. Something about the heavy-duty alternator/generator or something, but damn! You could hear them coming from a mile away. :shock:

that's funny because NYC has to be one of the only places on earth where the cops do NOT turn off the car...........I've seen guys park and run in the chinese food restaurant or dunkin donuts on the regular and just leave the car running, it's pathetic. The state troopers turn their engines off like normal people (at least the ones here in the city area and parts of LI)

It would be great if we could get a few important laws out in this thread also; the information given out already has been GREAT but I would like to know a few things. For example, if I'm just leaving the club and I'm sitting in my car across the street waiting for my engine to warm up or my a/c to get cold does a cop still have the option of calling that loitering?

and

What's the deal with the random checkpoint stops? [for those of you unfamiliar NYC does random checkpoints in the city to see who is driving with an old registration or without an insurance card or driver's license, basically to get cops who haven't met their quota a bit closer to reaching it] Do they need a search warrant to look in your trunk &/or glove box [which should be locked, lol]?

[TomSelis]

I'm thinking the trunk and glove compartment are off limits, but they can still ask you to open them. Because basically, they can ask you to do anything. Whether you do it or not is up to you.

Of course you can say no, but that could possibly rachet up the situation (depending on what's going on) to "Reasonable Suspicion" which is a couple of steps below "Probable Cause." They can't do anything to you until they have probable cause.

They need PC to search your car though. If you decline, they can just ask you enough questions until they have probable cause. Don't answer any questions.

And of course anything in plain sight is fair game and will rachet it up to PC.

[flabbybody]

I thought the check points were mostly to snag DWI's.

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

not anymore flab. these bastards use it to check for what I previously mentioned as well as a plethora of other dumb shit, HID lights, window tint, etc.

GOD FORBID you drive a Honda Civic, you might possibly get pulled over and asked to pop the hood for a VIN ID check, heard that one at the auto shop the other day, blew my mind

[Trogdor]

the cop cars here are getting hard to spot in michigan. They get VERY, VERY low, and VERY thin lights, looks like a luggage rack from a distence.

All these cops doing all this shit is all because of quotas on tickets and arrests......law enforcment is just another fucking business. Cops are pretty much comission sales men now adays. Same thing with the undercover shit, it's all just entrapment, be tempting people to do whatever in order to catch em and add to the quota.

Hence why I shall NEVER, EVER trust my life to the hands on police. :roll: