Get your Tin Foil hats on

[jeffandnicole]

A 'Google Street View' van roaming Philly recently may have been the Philly Police collecting license plate data.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/That-Google-van-was-actually-Philly-cops-watching-you-report.html

[kurumi]

I could see police departments utilizing Google's big data analysis in fighting crime... sort of a pre-crime department, where crimes are predicted and then prevented before they occur.

[Brandon]

A 'Google Street View' van roaming Philly recently may have been the Philly Police collecting license plate data.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/That-Google-van-was-actually-Philly-cops-watching-you-report.html

Google should be rightly pissed off and go after them for unauthorized use of their logos.  Any tickets given out due to this unauthorized use should be declared invalid.

[jeffandnicole]

Updated story, with picture of vehicle, Google Maps sticker & the cameras on the vehicle.  Clearly not a GSV vehicle!

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160514_Philly_cops_used_surveillance_van_marked__Google_Maps_.html

[Brandon]

Updated story, with picture of vehicle, Google Maps sticker & the cameras on the vehicle.  Clearly not a GSV vehicle!

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160514_Philly_cops_used_surveillance_van_marked__Google_Maps_.html

But very much unauthorized use of the Google logo.  As I said before, any and all tickets given out due to the use of this vehicle should be declared invalid due to such unauthorized use.  Google should be rightly pissed off and go after the Philly PD in court.

[freebrickproductions]

I'm willing to bet that Google will go after them in court.

[NE2]

That's just as laughable as throwing out a ticket because the meter maid was listening to an unauthorized download.

[Brandon]

That's just as laughable as throwing out a ticket because the meter maid was listening to an unauthorized download.

No, it's not.  The logos are intellectual property protected by law.  Their use by these officers broke the law.

[tckma]

That's just as laughable as throwing out a ticket because the meter maid was listening to an unauthorized download.

No, it's not.  The logos are intellectual property protected by law.  Their use by these officers broke the law.

Well, the police could argue that anyone who knows anything about GMSV knows that the cars are marked with GMSV livery all around, not a small Google Maps logo:



Still, it is trademark misuse.

[Bruce]

The van is so hilariously fake that it can't not be something fishy.

I propose that all government vehicles are painted hot pink to stand out from a distance.

[GCrites]

I don't see why they bothered. Regular cop cars have had the license plate cameras for years now.

[Max Rockatansky]

Say Google did sue, pretty sure that wouldn't invalidate any of the tickets or infractions that vehicle was responsible for.  How does a trademark infringement which would be a civil matter make any criminal evidence gathered by it invalid?  Wouldn't that not fall under the same domain as an unmarked patrol car?  But...not sure why they would waste the effort trying to pretend this patrol vehicle was a Google car.  Who's to say that with all those license readers that it wasn't the local repo man?

[vdeane]

I don't see why they bothered. Regular cop cars have had the license plate cameras for years now.

Because people would be on their best behavior with a regular cop car.  Harder to hand out tickets when motorists are on their best behavior...

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't see why they bothered. Regular cop cars have had the license plate cameras for years now.

Because people would be on their best behavior with a regular cop car.  Harder to hand out tickets when motorists are on their best behavior...

How my agencies are still using the Crown Vic?  If it's a Charger, Explorer, Tahoe, Interceptor or Caprice does the general road going public know enough to spot a plain one as a patrol vehicle?

[vdeane]

Unmarked cars aren't common here in NY, but the ones we do have are VERY conspicuous.  Plus people would likely get suspicious of the cameras.  I would.

[Zeffy]

I don't see why they bothered. Regular cop cars have had the license plate cameras for years now.

Because people would be on their best behavior with a regular cop car.  Harder to hand out tickets when motorists are on their best behavior...

How my agencies are still using the Crown Vic?  If it's a Charger, Explorer, Tahoe, Interceptor or Caprice does the general road going public know enough to spot a plain one as a patrol vehicle?

I see a few of those, but a majority of cop cars I now see are SUVs. Mostly the Tahoe or the Explorer.

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't see why they bothered. Regular cop cars have had the license plate cameras for years now.

Because people would be on their best behavior with a regular cop car.  Harder to hand out tickets when motorists are on their best behavior...

How my agencies are still using the Crown Vic?  If it's a Charger, Explorer, Tahoe, Interceptor or Caprice does the general road going public know enough to spot a plain one as a patrol vehicle?

I see a few of those, but a majority of cop cars I now see are SUVs. Mostly the Tahoe or the Explorer.

Exactly which are both way more common in non-fleet form than the Crown Vic ever was.  It would be easy as all hell to blend in to the crowd with a black or white Tahoe/Explorer.

[SP Cook]

The use of unmarked cars for traffic enforcement should, of course, be banned worldwide.  The danger of some outlaw pulling over someone, to rape rob or steal from, is about a billion times more serious than the trivial traffic random tax. 

As to the google issue, it just shows how dumb the Philly cops are.  They could have just as easily have made up some fake name.

[Max Rockatansky]

The use of unmarked cars for traffic enforcement should, of course, be banned worldwide.  The danger of some outlaw pulling over someone, to rape rob or steal from, is about a billion times more serious than the trivial traffic random tax. 

As to the google issue, it just shows how dumb the Philly cops are.  They could have just as easily have made up some fake name.

Huh what?  Are you saying that undercover patrol officers are raping and robbing people?  I think you meant to say that people impersonate police officers and yes that is certainly true but it's not exactly a everyday thing.  Wasn't there some guy recently that even set up his own fake police station to interrogate people?  Usually the people who pretend to be police officers prey on victims who are naive and don't know to ask for credentials or a warrant.  By that logic patrol vehicles ought not even being sold as surplus simply due to the fact that someone might turn a Crown Vic into his own personal means of escapism to commit mayhem.  I'd be way more worried about cabbies or Uber drivers doing something to a passenger than worrying about someone pretending to be an officer...they usually are in the same market for used vehicle.

But I digress yes using the Google name was pretty dumb but probably was even more since it appears the SUV to be something from the late 90s or early 2000s.  Hell I saw FHP pulling someone over with a Chrysler 300 a couple years back along with an Orange County Sheriff.  That 300 had the works built into it and even had a light bar behind the mirror.  Came to find out that it was vehicle they obtained in a property seizure so FHP decided to put it to work as an undercover car.   

[jeffandnicole]

I don't see why they bothered. Regular cop cars have had the license plate cameras for years now.

Because people would be on their best behavior with a regular cop car.  Harder to hand out tickets when motorists are on their best behavior...

Since those vehicles are looking at parked cars, the driver is generally nowhere around.

[Zeffy]

Exactly which are both way more common in non-fleet form than the Crown Vic ever was.  It would be easy as all hell to blend in to the crowd with a black or white Tahoe/Explorer.

Which now causes me to use the license plates on any black/white/tan Tahoe or Explorers that I see in my rearview, because I can never tell anymore if it's a cop or just an ordinary civilian! New Jersey police plates have a different format than normal civilian/passenger plates, and I've learned to use that as a giveaway to whether or not it's a cop.

[Max Rockatansky]

Exactly which are both way more common in non-fleet form than the Crown Vic ever was.  It would be easy as all hell to blend in to the crowd with a black or white Tahoe/Explorer.

Which now causes me to use the license plates on any black/white/tan Tahoe or Explorers that I see in my rearview, because I can never tell anymore if it's a cop or just an ordinary civilian! New Jersey police plates have a different format than normal civilian/passenger plates, and I've learned to use that as a giveaway to whether or not it's a cop.

Some are really obvious like the Yellow Plates used by patrol cars in addition to all government vehicles out in Florida.  Some states are harder like California which have normal looking plates but have something like "Cal Exempt" in the header rather than "California."

[signalman]

Which now causes me to use the license plates on any black/white/tan Tahoe or Explorers that I see in my rearview, because I can never tell anymore if it's a cop or just an ordinary civilian! New Jersey police plates have a different format than normal civilian/passenger plates, and I've learned to use that as a giveaway to whether or not it's a cop.

Sometimes that works, but not always.  I've seen undercover police vehicles with standard passenger plates. 

In a similar vein, I look for a pair of Pennsylvania plates when I'm in PA.  For some reason that I'm unsure of, state police in Pennsylvania are issued a pair of plates for their vehicles.  All other PA plates are only single.

[SP Cook]

  I think you meant to say that people impersonate police officers and yes that is certainly true but it's not exactly a everyday thing.  .

I not only meant to say, I did say it.

"Not an everyday thing".  Oh, so since the rapes, robberies and murders are only occasional, it is no big deal then.  Got it. 

No.  Since the societal importance of preventing EVEN ONE rape is about 100 billion times more important than some jerkwater town making $200 off some unfortunate motorist driving safe and fast, the use of unmarked cars should be 100% illegal for traffic "work".  And every young lady should be told to NEVER pull of unless the car is fully marked.  Period.

[Max Rockatansky]

  I think you meant to say that people impersonate police officers and yes that is certainly true but it's not exactly a everyday thing.  .

I not only meant to say, I did say it.

"Not an everyday thing".  Oh, so since the rapes, robberies and murders are only occasional, it is no big deal then.  Got it. 

No.  Since the societal importance of preventing EVEN ONE rape is about 100 billion times more important than some jerkwater town making $200 off some unfortunate motorist driving safe and fast, the use of unmarked cars should be 100% illegal for traffic "work".  And every young lady should be told to NEVER pull of unless the car is fully marked.  Period.

Okay where in my response did I say that rape wasn't a big deal?  You're the one flipping out and not qualifying your statement.  Basically you are insinuating that there a ton of people running around pretending to be police officers to rape people.  Do you have any UCR data or other crime statistics that back up your statement about criminals using the guise of a unmarked patrol car to target victims?  I never said that it "never" happens by method of police impersonation but you are acting like there are thousands of instances of it occurring annually with supposed unmarked patrol cars.