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In Oakland, California, Wednesday, a man who had a Ford Crown Victoria rigged up with flashing lights and a siren tried to pull over a real undercover police car. He was arrested and found to be a felon on probation. His probation will be revoked.

http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_12914517" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He must have just got started, because there have been no reports of assaults or robberies by bogus officers in the area.

- Jim

Next headline reads,

"Bogus Cop Pulls Over Bogus Cop"

Not the brightest criminal on the block and hopefully he gets what he deserves.

Here's an easy way to tell the difference between a civilian Crown Vic
and a CVPI (Crown Victoria Police Interceptor):

1. Civilian Crown Vics have chrome grilles in front.
The area between the tail lights and the license plate matches the car's color.

2. CVPI's have BLACK grilles.
The area between the tail lights and the license plate is also BLACK.
The only time this is ambiguous is if the unmarked LEO unit is black,
because then the black area on the rear would match what a civilian Crown
Vic would have.
Sometimes the cop cars will say "Police Interceptor" near the left tail light.
Sometimes..... they don't!

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As a general rule of thumb, cop cars of any brand/model do not have fog lights either.
So if a car approaches you from behind and he has regular headlights AND fog lights,
you can be almost 100% sure it's not five-oh. (Cops, you know, like Hawaii-five-oh!)
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By the way, for anyone who would consider buying a used CVPI, there is a place in
San Antonio that gets all the castoff SAPD CVPI's when they hit 80,000 miles. They
replace anything that's needed, they fix any dents, remove the decals, and usually paint
them solid white, but they will paint them any color you want.

A new CVPI lists for something around $30,000. The ex SAPD cars go for around
$12-13,000.

I believe that Ford also offers a "Street Appearance Package" for the CVPI which gives it the chrome grill, body colored tail (instead of black) and removes the "Interceptor" badging along with other changes that render it undistinguishable from the civilian CV. Usually these are purchased for supevisors.

One night I was chatting with a Plano, TX cop about whether a used
cop car was a bad buy because of all the rough service, or a good buy
due to all the heavy duty parts in a police package.

He told me something that I never would have thought of.
He said if you buy an ex police car, try to get a shift commander's car.
Fewer bad guys have been locked up in the back for transit to the pokey.

He said many of the regular patrol cars have had drunks blow chunks in
the back on the way to jail. Sometimes the smell lingers even after cleaning.

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:One night I was chatting with a Plano, TX cop about whether a used
cop car was a bad buy because of all the rough service, or a good buy
due to all the heavy duty parts in a police package.

He told me something that I never would have thought of.
He said if you buy an ex police car, try to get a shift commander's car.
Fewer bad guys have been locked up in the back for transit to the pokey.

He said many of the regular patrol cars have had drunks blow chunks in
the back on the way to jail. Sometimes the smell lingers even after cleaning.

There are other bodily fluids left in the back of police cars that I would be more concerned with.

Interiors, especially seats, are easily replaced

For everything else, dose with copius amounts of

Without going into too much gross detail, I can tell you that a drunk with a severe sinus problem can make a real mess after being sprayed with CS. This was before they put Plexiglas shields up on the screens between the rear and front seat. At least the screen blocked some of it.

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:Here's an easy way to tell the difference between a civilian Crown Vic
and a CVPI (Crown Victoria Police Interceptor):

1. Civilian Crown Vics have chrome grilles in front.
The area between the tail lights and the license plate matches the car's color.

2. CVPI's have BLACK grilles.
The area between the tail lights and the license plate is also BLACK.
The only time this is ambiguous is if the unmarked LEO unit is black,
because then the black area on the rear would match what a civilian Crown
Vic would have.
Sometimes the cop cars will say "Police Interceptor" near the left tail light.
Sometimes..... they don't!

*************************************************************************************************
As a general rule of thumb, cop cars of any brand/model do not have fog lights either.
So if a car approaches you from behind and he has regular headlights AND fog lights,
you can be almost 100% sure it's not five-oh. (Cops, you know, like Hawaii-five-oh!)
***************************************************************************************************
By the way, for anyone who would consider buying a used CVPI, there is a place in
San Antonio that gets all the castoff SAPD CVPI's when they hit 80,000 miles. They
replace anything that's needed, they fix any dents, remove the decals, and usually paint
them solid white, but they will paint them any color you want.

A new CVPI lists for something around $30,000. The ex SAPD cars go for around
$12-13,000.

Cop cars also have exempt licence plates.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to see any of that in your rear-view mirror at night.

- Jim

You know, I used to think that too, but I've seen a few that have "normal" Texas plates, granted the ones I recall were slicktops (no lightbar).

bdickens wrote:Cop cars also have exempt licence plates.

I guess I'll chime in here. First off not all cop cars are police interceptors and have exempt plates. For example in many constable's offices they put their deputies are on vehicle allowance. Some dealerships make it very hard to get interceptors so instead of just jumping through hoops the cop in question just buys a regular crown vic in order to avoid all the paper work. Usually it's just a department letter head but some dealerships won't take that. Also sometimes departments will buy Crown Victorias in the base model if they need a vehicle and can't get their hands on an interceptor fast enough.

As far as buying an ex-cop car it's really a roll of the dice. First if you go through a dealer and they say it was the shift commander/sgt/detective they are probably lying to you. They don't know. Second don't be a sucker and think they cost $30k brand new because they don't. I was almost put on vehicle allowance. In 2005 they were going for $21,500. Now after all the crap the department puts on them they cost the department $30k or more. There is no way in heck I would pay anything over $3000 for a used cop car unless it was really new and had low miles. Then I would be wondering why they are selling it. However if you just really want a police interceptor I'll give you a hot tip!

Go to http://www.lonestaronline.com

They are always selling ex cop cars on there. You can usually buy one for a little over $1000. If you feel like investing the money take it to a mechanic and have them go through it, then get it painted, then buy new tires. After that you'll probably spend around $3750 total.

Please consider that these cars have been driven hard for the most part. If they were in a county with lots of open roads they probably spent most of their time above 75-80 mph. If they are from a city they spent a lot of time speeding up to a high speed and then stopping. Also expect the tires and suspension on the passenger side to be a lot weaker than on the drivers. The reason for this is that cop cars bust a lot of fast u-turns to catch up to a speeder etc. Hardly ever do you catch one in front of you. If they were sitting on the shoulder than they had to gun it to catch up to the offender. Oh yeah expect to have a whole in the roof that they just squirted a bunch of silicone onto. That's where the wires for the light bar were. Lastly the bumpers are often torn in two spots on the back. That is from cutting through ditches and hopping curbs. The bumpers have this little lip that sticks down on the back bumper. When the front end is about 6-8 inches higher than the rear any little high point (like a curb, or a high spot of dirt in a ditch or shoulder) the bumper will drag and produce these nice little rips going up both sides of the rear bumper. It makes a loud popping sound when this happens !

Lastly any cop car that has 80,000 miles on it has a ton of hours. This is because they idle A LOT. When I was in LE I left mine running when I went into the store, or to eat if I could see the car from where I was. K-9 cars run for 8 hours straight with the AC on to keep the dog cool. They are left running in order to keep the computer on. IF you shut down the car without shutting down the computer it can drain your battery. On the other hand if you turn of the computer you have to turn and power it back on when you get back in. Big hassle. Therefore most of the time the car is left running in order to keep the laptop running. Also to keep the AC running and car cool of course

bdickens:
You stated that cop cars have 'exempt' plates, but this is not true if the car is an
unmarked car. It will have 'general issue' Texas plates. General issue is the term for
the regular license plates that the state issues for civilian vehicles.

Exempt plates moved from 6 to 7 numbers a while ago.

As of this month, the new 7 character general issue Texas license plates have started to be issued,
due to running out of the 6 character combos.

Vanity plates (personalized at the owner's request) are still restricted to only 6 characters, plus they
have to be printed on the plain white license plates, unless you pony up some more money and get a
plate with a picture on the left edge. You may get a picture plate personalized, but for that style you
will be limited to 5 characters due to the space taken by the graphic.

I spoke with the gals in Special Plates Division in Austin to see if I could change my 6 character vanity
plate to a 7. They said that TexDot can not allow 7 character vanity plates until the State Legislature
allows it.

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gregthehand - Thanks for your detailed comment.

SIA

A buddy of mine has an ex-cop car, the Crown Vic, he bought it for around $2,500 (I think, could've been lower), it's been a pretty decent commuter car for him. The looks he gets are priceless...it probably doesn't hurt that he's 6'3" with a bushy goatee and a cigar in his mouth, it's our great little "cigar car" LOL. The best part is the back doors/back seat. Whenever someone is riding in the back, you have to let them out.