Odd Police Encounter

[cheezit]

I had a job working on county cars at one point. I will say you would be surprised what losangles co sherriff uses. I sure they are not the only ones.

[mgood]

I saw the Irving PD a couple times with an old beat up Chrysler Fifth Avenue with one of the doors painted primer gray, lol.
Looked like they pulled something out of the impound yard and used it for speed traps.
I saw it in the median on 183 and thought some bozo got stuck trying to turn around where he wasn't supposed to. But when I got a closer look, it had the antennas you'd expect on a cop car. When I got really close I saw that it had lights in the grill.

[Scott in Houston]

This one was not one of those... no antennas and the lights were hung from the passenger visor. :)

Had to be a personal car.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Even though they have decriminalized it, this is exactly why there should be no requirement to display CHL when pulled over. Imagine this scenario, fake copy pulls you over, you turn over CHL and DL, he asks to hold the weapon during the stop, you turn over your weapon. Fake cop now has a gun.

That's an excellent point; I wish I had thought of that last session when we were trying to repeal the duty to disclose. It's rare, but it happens, especially around Houston and Dallas.

Chas.

[sjfcontrol]

Even though they have decriminalized it, this is exactly why there should be no requirement to display CHL when pulled over. Imagine this scenario, fake copy pulls you over, you turn over CHL and DL, he asks to hold the weapon during the stop, you turn over your weapon. Fake cop now has a gun.

That's an excellent point; I wish I had thought of that last session when we were trying to repeal the duty to disclose. It's rare, but it happens, especially around Houston and Dallas.

Chas.

Well, Charles -- no time like the present!

[Commander]

Cop cars have the "Texas Exempt" plates on them.

Not all of them. There are several State Leo unmarked that do not use exempt plates.

Any LE agency can and do use "plain plates" on their cars; primarily on undercover investigative units and some administrative units. DPS uses a special custom exempt "Highway Patrol" license plate on their black and whites. HP staff, supervisors, and criminal LE have plain plates on their units.

[txflyer]

The sort of thing is why I have taught my wife and son to always call 911 if there is anything at all "weird" about any car attempting to pull them over. All unmarked police cars are automatically weird. Sure enough it paid off.

An unmarked car (in very nice condition with appropriate grill and dash lights) attempted to pull my son over after tailgating him on I35E in Dallas. He dials 911 and they confirm it is NOT one of theirs. They sent several cars in his direction trying to catch the bad guy. My son got the plates and they come back belonging to corporate van. The plates had been stolen. Most likely it was an attempted car jacking. The guy took off after my son dialed 911 (probably saw him picking up the phone).

The process I taught them, maintain appropriate speed, lock the doors, put on hazards (to recognize the attempted stop) and dial 911. Do not stop until the 911 dispatcher confirms the pull over is legit.

[srothstein]

This one was not one of those... no antennas and the lights were hung from the passenger visor. :)

Had to be a personal car.

Not necessarily. There are real undercover cars that would not have antennas and are any make and model. Some of them are pretty beat up too, so they blend in to neighborhoods. The visor lights are used because they can flip up inside the car and not be seen from outside. Very rarely are the cops in uniform in them though because it makes no sense to disguise the car if the person is clearly a cop.

But, I would guess it was a personal car also. I think you handled it just right.

[steveincowtown]

I grew up in VA, and this was the incident that lead to me eventually carrying:

"As of September 2010, the killer has not yet been identified. Investigators have speculated that the suspect might be a law enforcement officer, someone impersonating one, or perhaps a rogue operative from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has a training facility nearby at Camp Peary in York County. Other investigators believe the killings were committed by more than one person working as a team."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Parkway_Killer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This was our version of "makeout point." There is no shame in confirming that it is an LEO before pulling over.

[ELB]

Some points to think about:

From reading the statutes and personal observation it does not appear to matter whether a vehicle is owned by a department or is privately owned -- it can be an "authorized emergency vehicle." For example, a volunteer firefighter's vehicle is an authorized emergency vehicle if it is equipped according to the law and is on its way to a fire alarm or medical emergency. (And failing to yield to it brings the same penalties as failing to yield to an ambulance or police car. That is, if there is ever a cop around to witness it. )

I know some LEOs who have privately owned vehicles set up as police vehicles; one a new Dodge police model, the other is a pickup truck. Interestingly the Dodge is "unmarked" although obviously a police vehicle (police bumper/grill guard, plain white, blackwalls) with lights mounted in the interior, but the pickup is clearly marked with "POLICE" decals. The owners work for small city/town police forces and drive city vehicles on duty, but they also work security and traffic control (e.g. construction sites) on their own time, and use their own vehicles to do so. I also believe that at least some of our local constables buy and outfit their own vehicles.

There are specific requirements in the law for equipping an authorized emergency vehicles, but there are several exceptions and variations for police vehicles. Also there are rules for when the lights and siren should be used, but again, law enforcement exceptions do exist.

I don't think there are any requirements that a police vehicle be new, or not "beat up;" some of the local county sheriff vehicles are not what one would call "pristine."

So the point of all this is that the condition or the position or type of lights on the vehicle in the OP really don't have any bearing on whether or not it was really a police car, which is unfortunate in that it can make it difficult for a citizen to be sure. The yelling and gesturing business was certainly unprofessional and deserves to be reported -- is you can ever figure out whose cop it was. Too bad you didn't have a passenger with a video camera or phone -- would have made a great Youtube flick.