Journal Timex's Journal: Undercover police cars 5
I was on my way to work today and saw a State Trooper's car on the side of the road. I knew it was a State Trooper not because of the distinctive two-tone blue that cruisers have (this one was black), but because it had several antennas and a radar gun on the driver's side.
It reminded me of the graphic that has gone around on Facebook with a picture of a police car in Europe (bright colors designed to attract attention) compared with an American undercover police car (designed to look like any other car and not stick out in traffic). It occurs to me that there are a few different reasons why American police departments (on the state and local levels) might employ cars with stealth-ish designs, one or more of which may apply:
It reminded me of the graphic that has gone around on Facebook with a picture of a police car in Europe (bright colors designed to attract attention) compared with an American undercover police car (designed to look like any other car and not stick out in traffic). It occurs to me that there are a few different reasons why American police departments (on the state and local levels) might employ cars with stealth-ish designs, one or more of which may apply:
- The police department may not be able to afford the number of officers required to patrol all parts of their jurisdiction. Having undercover cruisers means the people are going to be more careful about their habits in an attempt to not get ticketed.
- The police department is attempting to generate revenue for their {State|Community} by catching people off-guard.
In the first case, it would make sense, and it kinda works after a fashion. That isn't what bothers me.
In the second case, it's sneaky and underhanded. My train of thought (such as it is) went on to consider the fact that when people hunt, they have legal restrictions on what they are allowed to do to bag their prey. They cannot set certain traps or route their prey into certain areas for the purpose of killing them. If a hunter is found to have employed entrapment techniques, the Games Warden will likely take the kill and the hunter could lose his hunting license.
Why are police allowed to get away with the same sort of thing?
Business model (Score:1)
Interestingly, no one runs for election on the notion of reforming the police to avoid OPDEC.
Playing Dirty (Score:2)
Some time ago, the police in a city where I used to live had a bright red classic Ford Mustang. They had a habit of pulling up to other cars at stop lights on one of the busiest roads in the area, and when the other drivers would take off in an attempt to race, the police would pull them over and ticket them. To me that's borderline dirty.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that it didn't take long for word to get around about that... ...and then it was only people "from away" that fell for it.
That actually works for the police departments in many places, because people from away are less likely to fight the ticket.
simple (Score:1)
Animals have rights.
p.s. Re: "generate revenue", why do we go along with such a harmless-sounding euphemism for what is impropriety on the part of our overlords? Why don't we call robbing a bank merely "making a large-scale withdrawal" then?
Re: (Score:2)
I said "generate revenue" because that's how the droids in municipal government view it. In my mind, it's more like "taxation without representation": Want to speed? Fine. That will cost you a tax. Literally and figuratively.