I said full uniform, and officer does not have to be in what many would consider a full uniform. For example, high ranking officers, unmarked vehicles with stealth lights/sirens. They can be be leaving the office and be wearing dress pants, with department dress shirt and badge. They don't have to be wearing full patrol uniform.
And if the lights are going off you DO have to stop. You cannot tell if he is in uniform from 100 feet away and you cannot flee the scene. So I don't quite get what your point is. I suppose if it turns out to be an illegal stop, you can ask to speak to a supervisor.
So...
Cop lights up, unmarked car, 911 dispatch confirms he is a cop.
Cop happens to be out of uniform.
Are you telling me that since it's not a legal stop, that you will just drive off?
don't forget about the "commercial enforcement" (truck) cops, their cruisers are just like the regular cops but have a wide (7-8") blue band the length of the car vs. the flashy gold chevron on the door of the regular cruisers.
My youngest will be learning to drive soon. We was having one of many conversations on what to do and what not to do. I came across something I wasn't 100% sure of.
I remember hearing that if a Police Officer pulls you over in an unmarked car, they are required to be in full uniform. This would help prevent someone impersonating an officer doing a traffic stop. Is this correct or urban legend???
I won't admit to anything, obviously, but let's just say I tend to identify a police car from the front or rear from several hundred feet just by the headlights/tail lights.
It's uncanny, and I can't explain it... People don't believe me until we're going down the road at night and I go "That's a cop ahead of us," or "That's a cop behind us," and they go "NO WAY YOU KNOW THAT!"
Shocks people every time when I'm right, and I've never been wrong (in the last 10 years).
That said, I tend to identify every make/model/year of vehicle I'm familiar with by it's headlights/tail lights without issue. I haven't actively tried to memorize anything either, it's just 'there' for me to use.
Low profile isn't invisible. Hard to spot? Sure. If you don't know what you're looking for or where to look... Sure.
They're getting better and better at hiding them but there are always still signs it is a police vehicle even if it's the fact that you can't see through and through the vehicle because the tinting is so dark.
At night, it would be much harder - but I tend to have no issues with that as explained above. Most likely wouldn't be this lucky but, then again, quit breaking the law a**hole! (Liar Liar Quote).
LED strips at the top and/or bottom of the rear glass. Strobes or LEDs in the reverse lights and/or brake lights. With the tinting they have in the back window it can be extraordinarily difficult to identify.
I'm not that good . If I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings I could easily have one creep up on me.I'd get the tingle. Back when I was driving back and forth between northern Illinois and Indiana every few days, I could sense a cop on the highway within about a mile. Didn't need a visual. I just knew.
As much as I hate to say it, they should be not shiny, or as new, or a common car they use (how many times have you see a Toyota Camry as a police car?). They should blend in, what do you do when you see a police car and are speeding, slow down. Now, my idea of speeding is only 5mph over and most of the time they won't bother me. The shouldn't get rid of all marked cars, but start mixing in regular unmarked cars.
Watch out for those white full size trucks, now that would be a useful take home vehicle, what's the quota to keep one of those?