7 Ways to tell if you see an undercover car in America.

12 Feb 2016

This is inspired by a similar post. Except this one is for America, so here we GO!

Disclaimer! The cops are just doing their job, so any joke made in this is not meant to be taken seriously.

1. The spotlight.

This is the tell tale sign of an undercover cop car. No regular car has this. None, zip, zero, zilch, nada. You get the picture.

If you see a Crown Vic or even a Caprice with this then you know it’s being driven by a cop that thinks your to ignorant to observe their car. Well think again! Haha!

About 98% of the time you will see a car wit this and it Will be an undercover cop car, only 2% of the time it will be a decommissioned cop car. (Unless you live in a very ghetto area).

2. The Caprice.

Now this is less of the features of a undercover cop car, more so the car itself.

Now. In America. You can buy the caprice. But the chances of a you seeing a Caprice and it not being a cop car/undercover cop car is about 40% to 60% percent. (40 Being the lack of civilian Caprices).

But if your just a regular bystander, no chance.

3. The wheels.

Have you ever looked at the rims of a cop car? Or even an undercover cop car? They look basic.

This is another tell tale sign, because you could say “well there are cars with basic looking rims” but cop cars have a different look to them. You’ve probably never noticed, but every cop car has a basic looking rim. Even if it isn’t fully blacked out.

See what I mean?

They look very very basic, don’t they? Uninspiring even.

4. They look like they are the base trim level.

Lots of undercover cop cars look like their either the base line trim level or second to base. I mean just look at all the cars on this list. Other then the Caprice (which other then in Australia, doesn’t have a base trim level).

Now. In America, cops do travel alone. You may see a cop in a car with another cop in the same car. But it’s not uncommon to see a cop all by himself.

Another thing, unlike in Europe. Cops in the U.S do use custom number plates.

5. Their all (pretty much) just grey, white, silver, or black.

Every undercover cop car has a following trend when it comes to color. And like in the earlier post, their very clean.

They don’t have any graphics, they don’t even have any badges. (Not saying all debadged cars are undercover cop cars).

Their very clean. Very stealthy (if you know nothing about cars).

6. Bull Bars.

This, is the obvious sign of a cop car. 99% Of the time if a car has this it’s bound to be a cop.

That 1% is probably going to be someone trying to pay homage to the General Lee.

7. They have no registration on the number plate

Readers Comments

I’m going to quote what ///MGott said. Here it is.

///MGott

“If you get close you can see the license plate has no registration stickers and says exempt on it.”

Biohazardous

Um those are detectives cars undercover cars don’t have exempt plates and are impounded car so they could be anything.

Ok. I need to clear something up.

Now both of the readers comments contradict each other. So I did some research, and found out that it varies from station to station.

So it’s not guaranteed that the cops in your area will have “Exempt” on the plates.

If you think I’ve missed something then please comment down below and I’ll be sure to add it in if it hasn’t been addressed here already.

Comments

Two days ago I noticed an undercover in a white ford raptor with a pinstripe

I wonder if the pinstripe is just down to specific area’s.

They usually don’t have a dealership sticker on them either. My dad told me this years ago and has been correct 100% of the time. Not to say every car without a dealership sticker is an undercover police car, but if you’re suspicious and can’t see a dealer sticker on the back, there’s a good chance it’s the 5-0. Also the Crown Vic is hardly used any more. The new Taurus, Explorer, Charger, and Caprice is all I see these days.

While the Vic is hardly used, it is still being used. And to be fair that could just be your area.

You can smell bacon behind them

That was a missed opportunity to say donuts. Still funny nonetheless.

If you get close you can see the license plate has no registration stickers and says exempt on it.

That’s very very interesting, I’ll add that and quote what you said. Thanks for the info!

Um those are detectives cars undercover cars don’t have exempt plates and are impounded car so they could be anything. And the are not mirrors those are spotlights.

Detective cars in the post? Or when it comes to the exempt plates thing?
Also I fixed the mirrors to spotlights.
I’m not biased or anything but I need you to give me some evidence. Because right now I have information contradicting each other and I need some evidence to see which info is true.

I’ll be quoting this anyway and putting this in.

In Portugal we used to have a fleet of undercover STIs to amongst other things enforce speed limits. Now most of them are vw… Sciroccos and Golfs TSI to be more precise.

i have seen those and random gold, white, and blue hondas and toyotas that you cannot tell they are cops until brilliant blue lights and sirens go off.

my area has some pretty disguised cops. they are also super tuned, so even better cars can be outran.

They’re getting smarter!! Oh no!!!!

Hide yo’ cars hide yo’ bikes, cuz they be givin out tickets out here.

These are all referring to “unmarked” vehicles. Most of the time higher ranking officers drive these for a lower profile since normally they don’t have the same duties as lower-ranking officers, which goes hand in hand with being distinguishable from regular or “Marked” patrol vehicles. Undercover vehicles you will not be able to have any signs that tell you it is law enforcement. Some undercover vehicles (depending on which department) are confiscated cars taken from criminals. For some law enforcement subdivisions such as gang unit, officers may even dress in civilian clothing. There’s really no hiding from the law these days.