A heads up to everyone if you haven't noticed yet (or maybe I'm already late). Was driving in Eden Prairie this week and passed by a cop that was an unmarked black Ford Edge with black tint. Almost impossible to recognize at first glance. Just another car's headlights to look for in your rear view mirror...
You know... there's a point when I'm just not going to stop any more. It's not that hard to source and install a set of lights. At some point I'm not going to trust that it's actually cop.
Eden Prairie has some of the strangest undercover cars... Ford F350, Dodge Nitro, Ford Edge, Ford 500 etc
I understand that "they" the (troopers etc) are now using laser detectors hence a radar detector is kind of useless since it cannot detect laser...something along those lines, I use my eyes and and judgement to determine who is undercover and not plus the angel i carry on my shoulder. Tee hee hee.
Not only that, but officers dont always have that **** on, does a radar detector protect you from loud exhaust and tint tickets?
Yes...they really do. Pretty much crazy to even consider speeding in eden prairie. between the under cover city police and the under cover state patrol on 212 and 5.....yikes.
I saw a Civic with a fart can get pulled over by a murdered out Navigator. The undercover had darker tint and louder exhaust. Ironic but true.
EP has to be the worst I have ever seen as far as cops go. Do NOT speed AT ALL in that city or you WILL get a ticket sooner or later.
Nope it dosent but 9/10 if u drive civilized they don't bother u. In ep I've seen a enforcer edition mini s
Although EP is bad, I think Deephaven is worse. You're being real risky if you go over the speed limit in that city. I have countless friends who have been stopped and were going 2, 3, 4 miles over the speed limit and they get stopped and ticketed. Also make sure you stop, and I mean come to a full stop at stop signs cause they love to hand out tickets for that too.
Yes im very glad i only have to drive there for work and i no longer live there it was crazy when i lived there
I think that is the key. They do help because if you aren't driving civilized it might give you enough time to drive civilized. As well they help out a ton if you are taking a road trip, or have been driving long enough that you are pacing cars or not looking at your speed... sometimes this happens. The chances that a laser radars are not going to be giving you any advanced warning because the beam has a very small spread..... however there is still a chance that you will get a reflection reading. It isn't just state troopers that use laser, i know the roseville cops use them because i have been hit on HWY 36 a few times with lasers. I will say that cops that use POP, which is fast on and fast off radar for those that don't know, doesn't always work great. I have picked up a ton of POP Ka band radar bouncing off of objects and cars... it has saved me a few times. So I would agree that eyes are a good thing to rely on, but a detector can be just as useful of a tool to have in your bag of tricks. Spend your money right and buy a V1, it will pay for itself in less than a year. Detectors don't make you ticket proof, they assist in avoiding tickets. To say that having one doesn't help at all is incorrect. It is a tool and it can help.
Gray Chev Impala runs radar/lidar a lot of days on eastbound Anderson Lakes traffic just as you get to 169. They also have an unmarked gray Ford Exploder too. Lot of radar patrolling in the Golden Triangle business park in the last few months.
I worked for a Ford dealership in Roseville as a lube tech when I started my 'stealership' career. They always brought their fleet in for service and had some pretty interesting undercover's. Everything from a 97' sage green Moutaineer to a slammed 03' ZX3. Usually anything that runs decent and is an american made car that comes in as an impound, they'll use it for 5 weeks tops before selling it in a sheriff's auction. It was nice always knowing ahead of time what the flavor of the month was but since then I just automatically flip on the cruise when I'm rolling through Roseville.
This is the way it should be for all municipalities, Why is my city spending $205,077.48 for 7 new vehicles this year and equiping said vehicles, when they could be driving seized cars, trucks and vans. Saving on average just under $22,000 for the purchase cost of each said vehicle. You still have to budget for equipping the vehicles, lights, sirens, safety barriers, ect...but were talking $150K in cost savings of the purchase price. Why are our city inspectors/assessors driving around in Crown Vics that get 12-16mpg city. Can't we get these guys a Chevorlet Aveo or some other good fuel mileage city car? Napa has figured this out, our city can't? As this thread has made clear these non-typical police vehicles have the side effect of not only potentially increasing traffic ticket revenue as many motorists are not looking for them, they also show via people in this thread as they have admitted they drive safer, stay under the speed limit..... in cities that use random vehicles.
I definitely see what you're saying, but there's a lot more to whats going on. Since we come to this site to be well informed and to share not only opinions but ideas, here's a different angle to see the rythm of what they're doing. Your city is buying vehicles that meet safety standards. The cost of a bells and whistles package alone costs nearly as much as the installation cost - and thats in a standard squad? Then consider that systems are designed around a few common platforms (keeping costs down) and that modifying them to fit a different vehicle is expensive. The reason for interceptors is that they are designed not only to offer the officer the highest level of all around protection, but they are well liked by officers as a bundle of odd traits to be in one vehicle. Heavy, rwd, massive trunk space, wide wheel base, heavy/long front end, pushing power, huge dashboard/cabin space, comfortable seats, wide windscreen, cup holders, big center console area, etc. VERY few cars fit that category. Even the new dodge chargers that wayzata has are seen as less utilitarian on the inside by a lot of officers than the old interceptors. Good idea. The biggest issue with this is that getting funding approved on vehicles that are working well is difficult. The whole "if it aint broke dont fix it". Also like you mentioned above, purchase price on vehicles vice saving mileage rarely computes into a winning equation. When a city's police, fd, maintenance, etc. all use similar platforms, they can use a consolidated maintenance center, which also saves a lot of money. With gas prices going up, and manufacturers making more reliable vehicles across the board - I absolutely agree that cities should start looking at what they REALLY are using their equipment for and see if they can't be more efficient when their current fleet expires. Also, Crown vics do much better than that, especially at cruising speeds. Most interceptors run modified engines, but a standard crown vic rates an EPA of 20-24 highway depending on the year. absolutely. There is a big misconception that police departments generate individual revenue from tickets. It goes into the city/state finances, and then based on the crime rates in their districts, they may or may not see an increase in budget the following year. The idea being that if an area pushes back hard on crime, it might move somewhere else. Also, there is no quote system in PD's, and the HWY Patrol also does not work on a quota system. It is completely acceptable for an officer to go out on a shift and make no traffic stops, or to make 20 traffic stops and issue no tickets. Squads have GPS, etc. these days, so PD's aren't concerned about officers running skate shifts. Undercover cars are expensive to maintain and equip as mentioned, which means deparments rarely break even on what comes back in from tickets. The difference is that it is forced integrity. Doing the right thing when no one is watching just becomes, doing the right thing because there's no way to tell if they're watching. Just another way of accomplishing their mission. I wonder how happy a thread like this would make officers in deephaven, ep, wayzata, etc. if they could read how people approached their road ways.
Far from a lot to read, no apology needed by my standards. I agree with what you have for a counter argument. The biggest issue I have is Our/my city approves these funds year after year. How much of it is just the "well, we do it because it is what we have done and it works....." Our economy is changing, our city is like many others >95% developed. Our city may as well be on a fixed income as the tax base is pretty much what it is going to be. Unfortunately we can't stay with the "What has worked in the past...." mentality. If we do we end up as a city where we are as a nation Spending more then we take in. It is time to look out side the box and try to get ahead of the curve. As for using the one size fits all approach as a fleet and its maintenance. As an example wagonlady doing maintenance on squads at at a dealer. MPLS has much of their service work done at Auto Truck Service on Central Ave. Auto Truck, could care less if they are working on 1 Impala, 1 Crown Vic, 1 Ford van or 3 Crown Vics, they source the parts from Napa... anyway who has to maintain a stock for a variety of cars as is. Cities already have accounts for some services out side of their in house shops because it is cheaper. Yes, I agree it is cheaper to retrofit 10 Crown Vics into squads in our in house shops. However so what if it takes an extra $5K in labor per car. You still have a $17k savings after figuring in the purchase price and that $17k can pay for a lot of service work on one car over the 3 year life span our city is averaging. Not to mention there are other municipalities around the country using all sorts of vehicles out there now.
