This post has been prompted by a letter in today's Telegraph. Forgive me if this subject has been brought up before - but in the light of the recent £40M+ robbery, it's topical again. As part of the ruse, a car fitted with blue flashing lights in the radiator grill was used by the bandits - dressed, I understand, as police officers.
In the light of this, is it wise to stop for an 'unmarked police car' and, as the letter writer asks, is it actually an offence not to stop for any vehicle not displaying police signs?
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I don't understand the precise turn of events, but the simple answer to not get out of the car until you've seen some official ID of the officer that has pulled you over?
Better yet, agree to follow the officers back to the nearest police station or ask for jam-sandwich back-up to deal with the matter?
I wouldn't want to risk not stopping at all - that couldn't possibly help matters. It has to be an offence, doesn't it. Otherwise the traffic cops would be toothless.
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Waino raises a serious point and I would suggest that if you are unsure you should n't stop. If the unmarked car does turn out to be a police vehicle then you can always justify your actions later.
On a more tivial point, the other day one of my colleagues referred to unmarked police cars as "plain clothed police cars".
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IanS
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Myself being a trucker & carrying high value loads, we carry a card that we hold up against the window that says, (should I be stopped by the police or VOSA/Highways agency) I am unsure of your authenticity, but am willing to follow you to the nearest police station to resolve the matter. If they are genuine they will do so.
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If they are genuine they will do so.
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Hopefully, if they are not, they won't produce a handgun.
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Myself being a trucker & carrying high value loads, we carry a card that we hold up against the window that says, (should I be stopped by the police or VOSA/Highways agency) I am unsure of your authenticity, but am willing to follow you to the nearest police station to resolve the matter. If they are genuine they will do so.
In the early sixties, driving a hired Triumph Herald in the West End late at night on some nefarious errand, I was pulled at the top of Park Lane by a dirty plainclothes Cortina with two thuggish looking salesman types in the front and an Indian asleep in the back.
There were no blues, just one of those doorbell things they used to have. Although I thought the Cortina was the one that had rung the bell, it looked so very un-policelike that I didn't stop. It passed me on the left and pulled in front. 'Why did you just drive on?' the driver asked. 'I didn't think you were police,' I replied. 'What did you think I was? A bellringer?' yelled the man, a Scot. He had pulled me because I was driving on dipped headlights, then unusual in an area with street lighting.
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Don't truck drivers have a procedure for this, where they hold up a sign to the window offering to follow the 'police' car to the nearest station?
In this incident, they needed the manager alive, but I guess if they wanted to hijack a truck then they'll just start shooting drivers who won't open the doors.
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I hate it when post overlap!
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This is one of my li'l niggles.
I feel the majority of Police vehicles, should be marked & as high visibility, as possible.
Same with officers - they should wear uniform/dayglo, so they are as obvious as they can be.
Prevention is better than cure, supposedly. We ALL slow down/check our driving style when we see a marked car.
& opportunists, will NOT try it on, if there is a Policeman in uniform, around.
VB
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Will be ban stopping for police cars when a criminal gets access to some police decals?
A determined criminal will find always find a way, especially when there's 50 million quid involved.
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What concerns me is the "blue lights" which appear to be a fashion accessory on cars recently. You have probably seen it, blue windscreen washers, and deep blue dipped blue headlights.
I drive nice cars and I'm not so sure if I saw flashing blue lights that I would pull over now, unless it was very clear that it was a police car?
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If a car comes up behind you and blues flash behind the rad grille the overwhelming liklihood is that it's a genuine unmarked police car.
May be different rules if you're trucking high value goods or driving a petrol tanker, but for the average Joe in a car the best thing to do is stop as instructed. By all means ask to see a warrant card, but refusing to stop seems to me to be just asking for more trouble.
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Even getting a mock up marked police car would be relatively easy, just a few rolls of fascal and a signcutting machine. You can buy lighbars from the internet from abroad if neccessary. You could even make you're own lighbar now that new Police cars seem to use those low-profile ones based on transluscent LEDs.
Maybe when we are all required to carry ID cards, we will be able to ask the Police to see theirs. problem solved - NOT!
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These people had gone to the extent of kitting themselves out in full uniform, so a warrant card wouldn't have posed too much trouble to manufacture!
Any officer in an unmarked car must be in full uniform in order for them to stop and question you.
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Its easy enough to kit out any car to look like an unmarked car - this lot sell all the equipment:-
www.emergencyequipmentshop.co.uk/index.php?cPath=3...e
I came across them when looking for orange flashing lights for my 4x4 when on building sites, but they do blues, greens etc..
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Saw a black Bentley with outriders and a Mondeo full of heavies behind it, blues behind its grille, in heavy traffic near Olympia one evening, struggling hard to get out of town... next day the papers were full of Jacques Chirac being late for dinner at Windsor Castle, so that could easily be who it was. I blame the hosts under the circumstances.
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