Ways to tell an unmarked cop car in your city/area/state?

[3web]

You know, there are different ways to tell an unmarked car, whether it be from the licence plate, maybe some antennas, or a pushbar.

A few years ago, I could tell the difference, because unmarked cars had an "EX" on the licence plate.

Now they don't use unmarked cars that often, so they just have small text on the driver and passenger side door that says "LVMPD FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY"

[Otto Yamamoto]

NY state and NYPD try very hard to disguise their vehicles. Generally, though, you can spot the grille lights. NYPD even has a few fake Taxis.

XT1585

[Max Rockatansky]

"CA Exempt" is usually a good clue in California.  Florida government plates were yellow, although I do recall seeing some that weren't depending on the county.  Seems these days that seeing a white/black Charger, Explorer, or what seems to be a "Taurus" could be a possible like the Crown Vics of old.  Of course with the good old Crown Vics you can usually tell if there is absolutely no chrome and metal wheels.  The Mercury logo is distinctive enough to identify a Grand Marquis and the Town Car is way too tarted up to be anything but.  Of course anything like a big antenna on the roof or police issue mirrors should be a giveaway.  Usually the best undercover cars are typically born out police seizures.  I remember seeing Chrysler 300 a couple years back that even had a light bar installed on the interior, nobody would have seen that thing coming.

[Revive 755]

In Illinois the license plate is only two colors (either green or black - I can't remember which - text on white) compared to the more colorful standard plate.  The license plate also starts with either an 'M' (for local governments) or a 'U' (for state vehicles).  Granted this is not always enough to tell whether it is an unmarked police or some other government vehicle if there are no other identifying markings or bumper stickers readily visible.

[MikeTheActuary]

In Connecticut, the State Police obtain their license plates from the regular license plate pool, in sequential blocks.

Currently, most police vehicles have license plates in the format ###-UTa  or ###-UWa ...although I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a few other blocks I just haven't noticed yet.

Town vehicles (including police) have unique suffixes in their plate numbers.

[KEVIN_224]

As the plates will say "MUNICIPAL" in place of "CONSTITUTION STATE", As an example, the mayor of a given city will say "1 XX", with a 2 or 3 letter city code. Here, our mayor's city vehicle would be "1 NB".

[formulanone]

Steel wheels (or flat-black) and very little brightwork are good tip-offs.

[Zeffy]

The one thing I always look for is a 7-digit license plate, which usually hints at it, especially if it's a Tahoe, Explorer, Impala, Charger, etc. That's not always the case though, and newer NJ unmarked vehicles are much more discreet (minus the whole 4-or-5 cars only thing).

[Takumi]

Municipal plate and/or tinted windows. Although Chesterfield County has at least one unmarked Taurus that looks exactly like a civilian Taurus, down to the mid-level wheels.

[Mr. Matté]

All I can tell sometimes is that there's a blue EZ-Pass transponder versus the standard white one. This of course can also mean that it's a commercial or business vehicle.

[US 41]

Most unmarked police in my area drive Chargers so if you see a Charger there's usually a 50/50 chance it's a cop.

[corco]

Cops around here have either BPD XXX, P XXXXX, or ISP XXX license plates, even in unmarked cars, so that's how I usually tell.  Since no other Idaho plates use the XXX XXX format (besides the now-rare Centennial plate), it's pretty easy to tell from a distance if you see an otherwise eligible vehicle.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky's unmarked KSP units, usually driven by detectives, will have an array of three antennas (antennae) on the trunk and Franklin County plates.

[PHLBOS]

If one sees one of these on the road;

the chances are more than likely that such is either an unmarked unit or a detective's car.  Chevy never sold the Holden-based Caprice as a retail model (the Chevy SS sedan is not the same vehicle).

[jeffandnicole]

The one thing I always look for is a 7-digit license plate, which usually hints at it, especially if it's a Tahoe, Explorer, Impala, Charger, etc. That's not always the case though, and newer NJ unmarked vehicles are much more discreet (minus the whole 4-or-5 cars only thing).

NJ did away with most of their codings for other vhicles as well, such as commercial vehicle tags that used to begin with X. I haven't noticed any distintive codes for newer unmarked vehicles either. 

[noelbotevera]

With unmarked vehicles in my area, the giveaway is that there's red and white LEDs on the dashboard. It's hard to tell but if you see just two colors, one darker than the other then it's an unmarked. In fact the PA driver's manual actually tells you about what unmarked cars look like.

[SP Cook]

WV makes great use of "semi-marked" cars, which are mostly just cops not doing road patrol and still wanting a free car with free fuel.  Almost always standard issue cop-ish cars or SUV.  Plain wheels, "American" makes, no chrome, often a couple of antennas.

WV plates have changed recently.  State Police, county sheriffs, city cops and other assorted cops (DNR, weight enforcement, etc.) all have their own personalized plates with a badge, which will be used even on the "semi-marked" cars.    Previously the plates were just the standard issue government owned plates (state is green/white, county is red/white, city is blue/white) which were and still are used for non-cops government cars.

True unmarked cars are very rare. 

True undercover cars are very rare.

[The Nature Boy]

The color scheme on the New Hampshire police plates is so different than the general plates that they're remarkably easy to spot:

[Takumi]

If one sees one of these on the road;
(snip)
the chances are more than likely that such is either an unmarked unit or a detective's car.  Chevy never sold the Holden-based Caprice as a retail model (the Chevy SS sedan is not the same vehicle).

Good call. They're just now starting to trickle into civilian hands via auction, so a few years from now it may be similar to when you see a black-grille Crown Vic.

[PHLBOS]

If one sees one of these on the road;
(snip)
the chances are more than likely that such is either an unmarked unit or a detective's car.  Chevy never sold the Holden-based Caprice as a retail model (the Chevy SS sedan is not the same vehicle).

Good call. They're just now starting to trickle into civilian hands via auction, so a few years from now it may be similar to when you see a black-grille Crown Vic.

Given the fact that there are still active-duty CVPIs out there despite the vehicle type being discontinued 5 years ago; I don't believe there will be a massive onslaught of available retired Caprice PPVs just yet.  For one reason, there's a lot less of them out there.

[epzik8]

If it's a Ford Crown Victoria or, today, a current-generation Ford Taurus.

[PHLBOS]

If it's a Ford Crown Victoria or, today, a current-generation Ford Taurus.

Not every Crown Vic or Taurus out on the road today is a police vehicle. 

I happen to own a civilian 2011 Crown Vic LX that was a former rental car similar to the one in the below-pic.


When I first bought my '97 Crown Vic LX, back in Nov. of '96 (when it was brand new); I did hear some truckers via the CB mistake me for an unmarked unit (Plain Wrapper) back then despite it having turbine wheels and factory pinstripes along the sides

[cpzilliacus]

All I can tell sometimes is that there's a blue EZ-Pass transponder versus the standard white one. This of course can also mean that it's a commercial or business vehicle.

In Maryland, some unmarked law enforcement vehicles have orange non-revenue transponders (just like the marked cars).  Some unmarked cars do have "regular" looking white ones.

Not sure I have ever seen official vehicles in other states with orange E-ZPass transponders.

[sparker]

One of the ways I used to be able to spot unmarked cars back in the older Crown Vic or Mopar-product days was the presence of a vertically-placed shotgun in a bracket/holder between the driver & passenger positions in front of the bench seat.  Pretty easy to see in the rear-view mirror; not too hard to see from the sides as well.  Unless the agency was using a short barrel, the weapon would stick up well above the top of the dashboard.  This was common to marked vehicles as well, particularly CHP cars. 

[slorydn1]

In NC governmental vehicles will usually have an orange tag that says PERMANENT across the bottom. More and more agencies are using seized vehicles for interdiction, however, and they come in all shapes and sizes and have regular everday tags. I have been pulled over by what I thought was a soccer mom in a mini van, lol.

NCSHP cars will usually have regular plates but they'll say SHP-XXXX.

In the Crown Vic days the dual exhaust of the CVPI was enough to give me pause. I know there were civilian variants in the later years that had them too, but they were few and far between. If I saw 2 exhaust pipes I wasn't passing them for nothing, no matter what else I saw or didn't see on them. If I saw 1 pipe, I motored on by. Never got pulled by a Crown Vic with one pipe, so it worked for me.

Note about the black grills and nicer wheels. My department never had a black grill, steel wheel with center cap type either. Even our marked units had the regular chrome grills and whatever decent base model wheels was offered for that model year.

Its getting harder and harder to spot the interior mounted LED emergency lights nowadays too. Even on our own Chargers and Explorers, where I know exactly where to look, I find it challenging to see them when they are coming right at me on the other side of the road.