Dodgy Undercover

[Dejan]

Hi all,

Has anyone here had any experience of any dodgy undercover unmarked police cars??

My friend got done by this 2001ish white Toyo Echo with Green P plate on, turned out to be an undercover and pulled him over and fined him for not stopping 3 secs at stop sign. That was at Kogarah, in South.

My other friend got pulled over for doing 14K over limit on Liverpool Rd in Ashfield by this purple done up MAloo lowered and 22ish ridiculous rims on, ok its his fault, but who'd have thought!!

I have also heard cases where this other Purple SS on Parramatta Rd constantly booking done up cars for defect, when it had its own windows tinted so dark, that it prolly needs to wear night vision to see thru himself, as well as done up exhaust and 20 inch chromes.

I myself am being so careful these days, that i assume every single car next to me is an undercover and i'd blitz to the speed limit and just sit there for others to overtake ( that's legal right?? There is no law that says how fast you can reaach the limit as long as no intentional loss of traction and smoke takes place ? )

Any similar feedbacks from anyone else here?? Maybe helping us all to watch out for the shifty coppers here would be good ?


Cheers,

Dejan

[Bandit]

QLD has the most random undercover Police cars usually - I have also seen SS utes used in VIC too.

First time I have heard of really modified or non-Holden/Ford cars being used in NSW - especially that Echo - how embarrssing getting stopped by one of those!

[Hoggy]

I got done by a Black SS with Chevy badges and a Southern Cross decal on the back window. This was on the F3 NSW

[Graham]

that's crazy!
Police usually drive stock cars here, if they're not the new commodores but the older ones they have the stock wheels with hubcaps taken off so they're easy to spot then check for antennas/lights

WA police have 2009 STI's though, I see them every day at work.
They're now cutting budgets so I expect to see less of them

[billyboy]

Sounds very dodgy indeed!

Personally think there should be a stronger marked police presence, all this sounds to me is just revenue raising.

Call me paranoid, but if an Echo was trying to pull me over I dont think I'll take it serious . Recall there was a guy driving around impersonating a copper pulling people over & getting their details.

[Graham]

I agree that revenue raising plays a strong part in undercover cars but also consider the following

A car who sees a marked policecar is going to not do anything nearby eg speed/slide around corners

A car who doesn't see a marked car but ordinary cars is more likely to break road rules either willingly or by mistake (speeding 10k over for example).

Undercover cops are easy to spot if you know what to look for.
multiple antennas
lights on dash
person wearing high visibility outfit in car (rare)

[DavidAnthony]

blitz to the speed limit and just sit there for others to overtake ( that's legal right?? There is no law that says how fast you can reaach the limit as long as no intentional loss of traction and smoke takes place ? )

I got a warning for reckless driving for doing this in my old car but it was very loud. End of the day if the cop wants to book you for this he can.

[Bandit]

i'd blitz to the speed limit and just sit there for others to overtake ( that's legal right?? There is no law that says how fast you can reaach the limit as long as no intentional loss of traction and smoke takes place ? )

Yeah careful, thse days they call it "street racing"!

[Dejan]

Hi Graham,

You have some valid points there, personally i dont really mind undercovers as long as they are regular ones like Holden or Totoya or Ford, cos there are alot of dikheds on the road who dont deseve a license in the first place so serves them right when they are taken away, but i'm not a fan of the Echo or done up ones, as that is just plain dirty tricks.

Mind you undercovers are lot harder to spot than you think, dont know about WA, but here in NSW, lot of cars have multiple antennas for their in car TV to receive channels, and lack of for undercovers in a lot of cases where i've actually paid close attention to the ones pulled others over as i drove past (One i even stopped my car and walked around it to see any visual signs, NOTHING AT ALL, standard stock from outside, white in colour, it was a XR6T).

LIghts on dash, unless flashing, there is NO WAY you can tell, especially half of these have their windows tinted 50% makes it absoluately impossible to tell.

Funny you mentioned about highly visible outift / vests. The copper in Echo who pulled over my mate in Kogarah was wearing shorts and white Industrie shirt, didnt even wear a hat, its about as casual as you'd get, it was not until he showed my mate the badge and ID was he been taken seriously

[Bandit]

Sounds like he wasn't an undercover highway patreol then in the Echo.... might have been a detective doing something else and just wanted to write a fine out.

Lots of undercover cars use on glass antenna in NSW so they are harder to pick. Also the small LED lights on dash and rear parcel shelf are also getting harder to see as they get smaller. A lot of undercover cars also have those suction cup shade cloth things on windows too.

[blade888]

Ive seen that purple SS before. On Pennant hills road, sitting in a drive way looking like he's trying to pull out, but in fact he's got his speed gun out booking people and relaying the info to the patrol car 200m down the road.

As for marked patrol cars, around my area they use CJ Lancers! No kidding! I don't think they are just a trial thing either, as they have had them for over a year now.

[scraverX]

Here in the ACT I haven't seen any dodgey under covers and being ACT we get two 'flavours' of police; local ACT police and AFP, both of which will nab you if they can.

As Graham said, most of the police here drive stock cars. Holdens and Fords. The unmarked ones are a touch harder to spot though because well, it's canberra and there are a LOT of Government Fleet cars and they're pretty much all white. We have some red and blue XR6's and XR8's tooling around; but they're marked up to the jimbo.
Our unmarked cars, especially the traffic guys use some sneaky tactics. In the newer suburbs with street side parking they'll sit there and their speed 'camera' can be really hard to spot. They're also trilling ANPR here.

Back in the late 80's we had a traffic officer that drove a modded VL Commodore. It stood out in a few ways, one it was maroon and had a single blue light on the roof. The other was the turbo spooling when he gave it the boot and the fact that if you knew (as a school friend of mine did) what race/aviation fuel smells like it was running that too.

[Bandit]

Those flash for cash camera vans in the ACT stand out a mile as well.

[Speedie]

What annoys me more about these done up under cover cars is the fact that the cops in them usually encourage people to hoon so they can then fine them.

[Graham]

Hi Graham,

You have some valid points there, personally i dont really mind undercovers as long as they are regular ones like Holden or Totoya or Ford, cos there are alot of dikheds on the road who dont deseve a license in the first place so serves them right when they are taken away, but i'm not a fan of the Echo or done up ones, as that is just plain dirty tricks.

Agreed, the amount of times I see people do stupid stuff and no authority is around to do anything about it is insane. People doing burnouts and stuff I don't really mind but it's the stupid stuff like speeding through traffic at way above the speed limit whilst overtaking without indicating, running stop signs and red lights etc.

The worst thing is when cops in undercover cars, particularly the STI's (I've heard stories about this but never had it happen to me) is when the rev at you at the lights, if you attempt to race them they book you for it, that's very dirty...

Mind you undercovers are lot harder to spot than you think, dont know about WA, but here in NSW, lot of cars have multiple antennas for their in car TV to receive channels, and lack of for undercovers in a lot of cases where i've actually paid close attention to the ones pulled others over as i drove past (One i even stopped my car and walked around it to see any visual signs, NOTHING AT ALL, standard stock from outside, white in colour, it was a XR6T).

LIghts on dash, unless flashing, there is NO WAY you can tell, especially half of these have their windows tinted 50% makes it absoluately impossible to tell.

Funny you mentioned about highly visible outift / vests. The copper in Echo who pulled over my mate in Kogarah was wearing shorts and white Industrie shirt, didnt even wear a hat, its about as casual as you'd get, it was not until he showed my mate the badge and ID was he been taken seriously

Could be different in NSW, but then again if I saw 50% tint on a car I'd behave around it

Apparantly they NEED to be wearing high visibility shirt if they are on the side of the road, I don't know the rules about this though.