# Unmarked Police Cars



## Diamond (Mar 11, 2008)

Over the past couple of months I've noticed more and more of these zipping around North london.

Usually they're some sort of dark blue estate car with blue flashing lights in their grills, on top of the dashboard or some sort of removable light on top of the roof.

The thing is that the way they drive, recklessly racing each other at high speed down major roads, and the people inside, who often look like they're having a right good laugh have started to make me suspicious.

I don't know whether I'm just being a bit paranoid, but I've started to think that a lof of these cars are normal vehicles that have just been modified by people with a bit of spare cash so that they can get to work quicker or just have a laugh with their mates.


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## Dan U (Mar 11, 2008)

i think you need to smoke less dope dude.

i see a load of those cars tearing down Upper Street as well. I suspect it's local CID etc


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## rorymac (Mar 11, 2008)

If one of the blokes is wearing a Nike tracksuit top and has a buzz cut then = coppers 
The laughing is a good spot as well .. try not to make eye contact whatever you do


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## Detroit City (Mar 11, 2008)

maybe its james bond in his aston martin DB7?


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## Stobart Stopper (Mar 11, 2008)

Diamond said:


> Over the past couple of months I've noticed more and more of these zipping around North london.
> 
> Usually they're some sort of dark blue estate car with blue flashing lights in their grills, on top of the dashboard or some sort of removable light on top of the roof.
> 
> ...


Sometimes they are robbery cars. When someone gets robbed theytake the victim around to see if they can find the person who did it. The quicker they get to the victims the more chance there is that the mugger will get caught, hence the racing around.


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## Dan U (Mar 11, 2008)

make a banner saying 'i love harry roberts' and unfurl it at them whenever you see one

if they get out and kick the fuck out of you, they are coppers.


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## Diamond (Mar 11, 2008)

Maybe it's just me then.

The strange thing is that a couple of times I've seen these cars pull up at traffic lights with queues of cars in front of them who are reluctant to maneouvre out the way.

Instead of nipping into the empty oncoming stream, I've seen the drivers of these cars just waiting, occasionally for the green light, with sirens blaring before they move on.

It's probably just a matter of polise trying to get from a to b faster who can't justify moving into the oncoming lane because it's not an emergency; but all the same those drivers look suspiciously civvy and nervous about taking full advantage of their unmarked status.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Mar 11, 2008)

it's actually a new initiative so that the lowly-paid cops can use the flashy unmarked motors to do a bit of mini-cabbing on the side, to supplement their meagre incomes. 

the blues'n'2s dashes are for when they've got a good fare promising a hefty tip if they get them there in super quick time. that's why they're smiling innit...


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## poster342002 (Mar 11, 2008)

Also, what are those red police cars you see around London? They're _not _Miltary Police (although they also have these red cars), but have ordinary plod inside them.


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## Kanda (Mar 11, 2008)

Red police cars in London belong to the City of London police.


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## Diamond (Mar 11, 2008)

poster342002 said:


> Also, what are those red police cars you see around London? They're _not _Miltary Police (although they also have these red cars), but have ordinary plod inside them.



They're armed police.


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## Kanda (Mar 11, 2008)

Or Diplomatic Protection Police I think...MPS Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG) car:


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## poster342002 (Mar 11, 2008)

Kanda said:


> Red police cars in London belong to the City of London police.



Even though I've seen them outside the City area? 

So, they're more likely Armed Police or Diplomatic Protection? Why advertise the fact, though?


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## bluestreak (Mar 11, 2008)

It's a decoy.  The real Armed Police are driving around in souped up XR3is.


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## Stobart Stopper (Mar 11, 2008)

If you see large silver cars with 4 officers in, they are the driving school cars. We gets loads of them around here.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Mar 11, 2008)

collective doughnut run more like.


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## paolo (Mar 11, 2008)

poster342002 said:


> So, they're more likely Armed Police or Diplomatic Protection? Why advertise the fact, though?



Just diplomatic. Diplomatic may of course be armed, but they are not regular armed police.

No, I've idea why they advertise the fact though. Maybe DB, or one of the currently serving people, will surface and explain?


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## paolo (Mar 11, 2008)

Dan U said:


> i see a load of those cars tearing down Upper Street as well. I suspect it's local CID etc



See them round here too - same assumption for me.


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## GuruMeditation (Mar 11, 2008)

Unmarked police cars never have hub-caps on.

FACT


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## Stobart Stopper (Mar 11, 2008)

GuruMeditation said:


> Unmarked police cars never have hub-caps on.
> 
> FACT



Yes they do.


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## paolo (Mar 11, 2008)

GuruMeditation said:


> Unmarked police cars never have hub-caps on.
> 
> FACT



I'm sure CID would love all crims to believe that kind of story. It would make their job sooo easy. Special "invisibility" hub caps. Just put them on, and suddenly you "cannot be police".


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## Dan U (Mar 11, 2008)

If you ask an undercover copper if he is a policeman he has to answer you honestly.


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## paolo (Mar 11, 2008)

Dan U said:


> If you ask an undercover copper if he is a policeman he has to answer you honestly.


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## Big Vern (Mar 12, 2008)

Yeah it's bleedin liberty!.. normal folk n blaggers like m'self have to abide by traffic laws while the old bill just drive around willy nilly...I mean after a nice little tickle from a post office last thing you need is the bleedin old bill running red lights tryin to catch ya!


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## Dan U (Mar 12, 2008)

Big Vern said:


> Yeah it's bleedin liberty!.. normal folk n blaggers like m'self have to abide by traffic laws while the old bill just drive around willy nilly...I mean after a nice little tickle from a post office last thing you need is the bleedin old bill running red lights tryin to catch ya!



You'll never take me alive!!!!!


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## Roadkill (Mar 12, 2008)

There are loads of unmarked cars around here.

Maybe they're a substitute for the normal cars, which seem to spend a lot of time parked up outside the York Cafe on the Woolwich Road, with their crews inside tucking into large fry-ups.


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## zoltan (Mar 12, 2008)

Used to be able to tell Unmarked cars cos they had a couple of ariels & didnt have any stickers on them - like " Windsurfers do it .." or even basic dealer back screen tags

bu theyese cops are wising up and use any old shite these days - with stickers on sometimes. Even the MI5 use a plated black cab for London stuff


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## Roadkill (Mar 12, 2008)

zoltan69 said:


> Used to be able to tell Unmarked cars cos they had a couple of ariels & didnt have any stickers on them - like " Windsurfers do it .." or even basic dealer back screen tags
> 
> bu theyese cops are wising up and use any old shite these days - with stickers on sometimes. Even the MI5 use a plated black cab for London stuff



Yes that's true.  Unmarked cars - especially traffic cars - used to be very easy to spot: always a high-powered saloon (V6 Vectra, 5-series BMW, Volvo 850 T5 etc), always smart, no domestic fripperies or stickers, two aerials, two people in the front, sometimes even in uniform etc etc.  The unmarked cars around here are a right mixed bunch, though: a variety of cars, some quite old, and some are still quite obvious, whereas some look like old bangers until the blues and twos go on.


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## g force (Mar 12, 2008)

Round my way they all seem to be de-badged Skoda Octavia VRS and Vectra VXR's...but I have noticed they wear uniforms less and less.


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## Roadkill (Mar 12, 2008)

The last one that went past me was a ten-year-old mid-range Renault Megane with a hubcap missing!  It looked like something you'd buy from the back of the local classified ads for £500...


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## sally_sally (Mar 12, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> The last one that went past me was a ten-year-old mid-range Renault Megane with a hubcap missing!  It looked like something you'd buy from the back of the local classified ads for £500...




I saw a one that looked like a builders van, complete with ladder. It had the lights in the gril and the rear lights flashed, this was on South Lambeth Road.

Sally


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## paolo (Mar 13, 2008)

sally_sally said:


> I saw a one that looked like a builders van, complete with ladder. It had the lights in the gril and the rear lights flashed, this was on South Lambeth Road.
> 
> Sally



Hubcaps?


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## pk (Mar 13, 2008)

zoltan69 said:


> Even the MI5 use a plated black cab for London stuff



Always wanted a black cab, but with tinted windows and full-on luxury inside.


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## likesfish (Mar 13, 2008)

you mistake plains clothes i.e not in uniform 
 and undercover 
 too separate things we had CID turn up at the hostel I worked on a regularly to 
be greeted with "morning officers"  
  when the queen opened the place had a squad of presumed armed plains cloth
outside for about the week before hand. most peaceful week the place ever had 
. Fight started copper got various combatants looked at copper did one. Don't know what they were fed they were huge and it wasn't fat


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