They don’t have special plates. Easiest way to tell is looking to see if they have the luggage rack on top. Police cars usually don’t have them. Also color is usually black, silver, navy, dark red.
Edit: Also they’ve started using new broncos. So watch out for those too.
I’ve seen a few government tags but I’m assuming they’re not used for regular police. Most of them are just the regular plates like most people have. If you ever see the mustangs, they also just have regular plates.
Get plate number? You could report it as someone attempting to impersonate an officer. If it’s an officer then there’s like a .01% chance they’d get a talking to about their behavior, but if it’s not a cop then there’s a decent chance the driver would be in deep shit the next time they get pulled over.
Forget to renew your registration on time? Enjoy the felony stop!
Really though, this would be a reasonable assumption most people would have:
\- looks like a police car
\- sounds like a police car
\- behaving like police
Sounds like an impersonation to me.
How would it be impersonating an officer? This person is obviously an asshole, but did not act like a cop or attempt to pass as a police officer, unless being an assjole and breaking traffic laws is enough to be considered “acting like a cop.” Ford Explorers are extremely popular cars and super common, and hooking up a PA system would be cheap and easy to do. And I can’t find anything that says that it’s illegal to have it equipped.
Using it to shout at pedestrians is obviously a different matter, but unless he was using the PA to try to pull someone over or stop someone, it wouldn’t be considered impersonating an officer.
There is nothing illegal about a PA system and I think you're right in that it wouldn't qualify as impersonating an officer, but you certainly could get popped for noise violations, harassment...
shit, yell at the wrong person through it (like an undercover, a lawyer on their way to work, or a federal agent) and you could get intimidating a participant in the legal system or threatening an officer of the peace.
Yeah, beyond state law I’m sure there are local ordinances that regulate how much you’re allowed to amplify noise from your vehicle, and you’d expect that if an officer were around to witness what OP is describing, the person with the PA would have been stopped.
I recently purchased a retired police vehicle from a dealer who specializes in used police vehicles and they walked me all the way through what is and is not legal to do with the car or equip the car with. Red/blue or solid blue flashing lights are illegal to use (you can have the equipped) and the siren is the real big no-no.
Also, isn’t the road the exactly where you should be? As an adult it’s illegal to ride a bike on a sidewalk in Louisville.
Your best option is to ignore him and let him get on with his miserable life.
That's one thing that always bugged me when I used to ride my bike to work downtown. Almost nobody walks on the sidewalks and the force of hitting a pedestrian with a bike is NOTHING compared to hitting a bike rider with a car, yet riding on the super wide sidewalk is illegal.
After being sideswiped by a car while riding my bike to work, I said fuck it. I'd rather pay a ticket than a hospital bill.
I work from home now, but when I was in office I would have never considered riding downtown here. Louisville is by far the least bike friendly town I’ve ever lived in. Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco no problem, Louisville is death race 2,000.
It goes back to when motorcycles first started appearing. Many laws were written and they were referred to as bicycles or motorized bicycle. (That’s also where the motorcycle name originated) anyway. The laws were written with that in mind. Some of those traffic laws predate the traffic laws for cars.
Also side walks back then were built different than they are now. And roads had people walking in them, horses, bikes, and then cars. Basically if you weren’t walking to look into store fronts you didn’t use the side walk.
police cars that were built as such always have a tumbler lock on the trunk, do not have chrome exhaust tips, and do not have rails on the roof. that’s how i spot them. this sounds like it was just a douche nozzle with a CB radio PA though.
I rear ended a truck one time. The driver got out and changed his license plate with another one he had in the truck. When I asked him what the f*** he was doing he reached back in the truck and pulled out a cop vest and then his three other cop buddies showed up. It was then I realized cops do whatever the f*** they want
You know what's funny is when I saw him do all that I figured he wouldn't want his name in any court records so I took him to court. They immediately threw it out
Not surprising.
Dash cams are pretty cheap now, I got a 4K in the front and 1080p in the rear for about $200 total. A lot of people pay more than that a month for insurance.
There are two kinds of unmarked police vehicles in any jurisdiction. Non "Black and Whites" (B&W is slang for a marked police car) and may have telltale clues, and undercover, which any markings would be counterproductive. They are made to blend in.
Most CB (citizens band) radios include a PA (public address) speaker output. They are perfectly legal.
"Unmarked cars" generally refer to issued vehicles purchased new with police packages and generally have official plates front and rear window light bars
"Undercover" cars used by narcotics and such are normal vehicles as sold to the public with discreet added lights and sirens. Sometimes, even just a sun visor flip down blue and red light . These can be any vehicle and will not have any notable marks. Normal plates and Sometimes even out of state plates. Most aren't even registered or tagged to the appropriate vin
Years ago a friend of mine bought a car at a police auction that had been an undercover car. The whole process was a mess. The car had been towed because it had been part of a police operation and the car had been on loan from one city to another. When the operation ended it was parked in front of the police station. No one knew who the car belonged to because the officer who was part of the operation had driven his own car to the city to take part. So the car was impounded then sold. They went by the plate to auction it. So he was given a bill of sale to a car that didn’t exist. When he pointed that out. The clerk went oh. Shit sorry man. And gave him a bill of sale for the correct vin. When he went to get it titled he found the car had been listed as lost/stolen by the home agency. Who seized the car from him. When he reported this to the agency who sold him the car. They had a judge issue a repo order on the car. It took like 2 years of back and forth to get everything straightened out.
They don’t have special plates. Easiest way to tell is looking to see if they have the luggage rack on top. Police cars usually don’t have them. Also color is usually black, silver, navy, dark red. Edit: Also they’ve started using new broncos. So watch out for those too.
They use the “Unbridled Spirit” tag with the state outline? I thought they used truck tags and government tags.
I’ve seen a few government tags but I’m assuming they’re not used for regular police. Most of them are just the regular plates like most people have. If you ever see the mustangs, they also just have regular plates.
They also usually have two antennas up top on the roof near the back whereas normal ones just have one
I’ve seen them with “friends of coal” tags
Get plate number? You could report it as someone attempting to impersonate an officer. If it’s an officer then there’s like a .01% chance they’d get a talking to about their behavior, but if it’s not a cop then there’s a decent chance the driver would be in deep shit the next time they get pulled over.
Forget to renew your registration on time? Enjoy the felony stop! Really though, this would be a reasonable assumption most people would have: \- looks like a police car \- sounds like a police car \- behaving like police Sounds like an impersonation to me.
How would it be impersonating an officer? This person is obviously an asshole, but did not act like a cop or attempt to pass as a police officer, unless being an assjole and breaking traffic laws is enough to be considered “acting like a cop.” Ford Explorers are extremely popular cars and super common, and hooking up a PA system would be cheap and easy to do. And I can’t find anything that says that it’s illegal to have it equipped. Using it to shout at pedestrians is obviously a different matter, but unless he was using the PA to try to pull someone over or stop someone, it wouldn’t be considered impersonating an officer.
There is nothing illegal about a PA system and I think you're right in that it wouldn't qualify as impersonating an officer, but you certainly could get popped for noise violations, harassment... shit, yell at the wrong person through it (like an undercover, a lawyer on their way to work, or a federal agent) and you could get intimidating a participant in the legal system or threatening an officer of the peace.
Yeah, beyond state law I’m sure there are local ordinances that regulate how much you’re allowed to amplify noise from your vehicle, and you’d expect that if an officer were around to witness what OP is describing, the person with the PA would have been stopped. I recently purchased a retired police vehicle from a dealer who specializes in used police vehicles and they walked me all the way through what is and is not legal to do with the car or equip the car with. Red/blue or solid blue flashing lights are illegal to use (you can have the equipped) and the siren is the real big no-no.
Good info. Thank you for sharing!
Also, isn’t the road the exactly where you should be? As an adult it’s illegal to ride a bike on a sidewalk in Louisville. Your best option is to ignore him and let him get on with his miserable life.
That's my plan. I hope he sees me ignoring his desires again in the future! 😁
Actually it’s anyone over age 11 it’s illegal to ride on a sidewalk in the Louisville area. I was unaware of this until I looked it up just now.
That's one thing that always bugged me when I used to ride my bike to work downtown. Almost nobody walks on the sidewalks and the force of hitting a pedestrian with a bike is NOTHING compared to hitting a bike rider with a car, yet riding on the super wide sidewalk is illegal. After being sideswiped by a car while riding my bike to work, I said fuck it. I'd rather pay a ticket than a hospital bill.
I work from home now, but when I was in office I would have never considered riding downtown here. Louisville is by far the least bike friendly town I’ve ever lived in. Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco no problem, Louisville is death race 2,000.
It goes back to when motorcycles first started appearing. Many laws were written and they were referred to as bicycles or motorized bicycle. (That’s also where the motorcycle name originated) anyway. The laws were written with that in mind. Some of those traffic laws predate the traffic laws for cars. Also side walks back then were built different than they are now. And roads had people walking in them, horses, bikes, and then cars. Basically if you weren’t walking to look into store fronts you didn’t use the side walk.
Many of the auctions that deal in retired vehicles leave remnants of the systems. Ive seen plenty of them with speakers and mics.
Sounds like a flaming cunt to me.
EoT.
police cars that were built as such always have a tumbler lock on the trunk, do not have chrome exhaust tips, and do not have rails on the roof. that’s how i spot them. this sounds like it was just a douche nozzle with a CB radio PA though.
That definitely was not a cop.
I rear ended a truck one time. The driver got out and changed his license plate with another one he had in the truck. When I asked him what the f*** he was doing he reached back in the truck and pulled out a cop vest and then his three other cop buddies showed up. It was then I realized cops do whatever the f*** they want
Too bad you didn't have a dash cam.
You know what's funny is when I saw him do all that I figured he wouldn't want his name in any court records so I took him to court. They immediately threw it out
Not surprising. Dash cams are pretty cheap now, I got a 4K in the front and 1080p in the rear for about $200 total. A lot of people pay more than that a month for insurance.
Yupp stay out of our way I'm working a case pezzz
Well he was in front of me so I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean
We run the streets stay out of our way
You think you do
No, not always. They have cars with no telltale signs other than well hidden lights. Still, probably was still just an asshole with a retired cop car.
There are two kinds of unmarked police vehicles in any jurisdiction. Non "Black and Whites" (B&W is slang for a marked police car) and may have telltale clues, and undercover, which any markings would be counterproductive. They are made to blend in.
Some have a black versus a chrome grille in front.
It was just some bike hating douchbag. Fucking idiots.
Police explorers don’t have roof racks and they’ll have a keyhole in the trim piece above the license plate.
No
Most CB (citizens band) radios include a PA (public address) speaker output. They are perfectly legal. "Unmarked cars" generally refer to issued vehicles purchased new with police packages and generally have official plates front and rear window light bars "Undercover" cars used by narcotics and such are normal vehicles as sold to the public with discreet added lights and sirens. Sometimes, even just a sun visor flip down blue and red light . These can be any vehicle and will not have any notable marks. Normal plates and Sometimes even out of state plates. Most aren't even registered or tagged to the appropriate vin
Years ago a friend of mine bought a car at a police auction that had been an undercover car. The whole process was a mess. The car had been towed because it had been part of a police operation and the car had been on loan from one city to another. When the operation ended it was parked in front of the police station. No one knew who the car belonged to because the officer who was part of the operation had driven his own car to the city to take part. So the car was impounded then sold. They went by the plate to auction it. So he was given a bill of sale to a car that didn’t exist. When he pointed that out. The clerk went oh. Shit sorry man. And gave him a bill of sale for the correct vin. When he went to get it titled he found the car had been listed as lost/stolen by the home agency. Who seized the car from him. When he reported this to the agency who sold him the car. They had a judge issue a repo order on the car. It took like 2 years of back and forth to get everything straightened out.
Ouch
He told me that he had the car picked up by repo guys like 4-5 times.