I was driving home and saw an Audi A8 stopped in a work zone. It had blue and red LED flashing lights in the rear window. Being an A8, I guessed that someone had customized his car, especially since it had a citizen license plate.
A couple weeks later I saw a Ford Escape with the same blue and red flashing lights and a citizens license plate. He had stopped a car and was clearly a police vehicle. I wonder who the lucky cop is that gets to drive the A8? Must be nice!
I could be wrong, but seem to remember in some areas confiscated vehicles could be used by law enforcement. Had a friend who is a cop, she wanted one of the big SUVs, I told her just pull over every Escalade with aftermarket rims, sooner or later she would find drugs and could confiscate the vehicle.
Yep, we have plenty of “undercover” Police vehicles in my area/middle TN, from my understanding they are (mostly anyway) confiscated from drug seizures and whatnots…
In the Nashville area, I have seen them used a lot at road construction areas just for the blue lights and a LEO presence, but have seen the same vehicles used in traffic stops…
In my county, I just see them mainly used to catch speeders and road closures for parades and stuff…
TN State Troopers use them also…
law enforcement agencies here . . . afaik . . . tend to buy domestic brand vehicles
I agree with the others . . . the Audi was probably added to the fleet as a result of being confiscated
This phenomenon takes place–sporadically–in all parts of the US, and in other nations.
Kansas City
Suffolk County, NY
In Turkey (Yes, that’s a Bentley!)
A Maserati police vehicle, in Australia
A Ferrari police vehicle, in The Czech Republic
Back in the mid-60s, my local County Police seized a yellow 1960 Ford Galaxie convertible, and they used it to apprehend speeders. It wasn’t this one, but it looked identical.
On a recent road trip I saw a blacked out Dodge Challenger 392 in GA checking for speeders. The car was black, black wheels and the GA Patrol graphics in flat black on the sides. It looked wicked! The blues were inside the car. The bull-bar on the car was a bit of a give-away, though!
I did see some Explorers and Tahoes in normal colors with lights behind the dash.
None with civilian license plates, though.
That Caprice would have been a nice fresh update to the 2000 & up Impala the U.S. market had all those years. Too bad they never sold it to the public, like it was sold in Australia under the Holden brand.
Are you thinking of this, sold in small numbers in the US?
They look like they share mechanicals. I like the cleaner aft look of the Caprice VDC shared. Reminds me though of a giant Cruze 
There’s a (or at least was a few years ago) Ford F-150 pickup with a ladder rack and ladder on top that’s a police vehicle near Lowell MA. Not sure if it’s (was) local or state (probably state since I only saw it on I-495 or Rt-3). No way would I think that was a police vehicle.
In a town where I lived in the early '80s, they used a bronze-colored sedan that they had seized, as an undercover car. In order to make it look more innocuous, they always had dry-cleaning hanging from a coat hook in the rear seat area.
When I was at the downtown location where we saw a ton of the alphabet soup of law enforcement agency’s, one of the federal agency’s (who will remain unnamed) had a very undercover surveillance van that they used for, well surveillance lol), among the over a million $ worth of they can watch you and you never know it stuff in the back of the van, the outside had a ladder rack on it with a very sun faded (looked very well worn) ladder on top with a typical chain and pad lock on it, only problem was the lock was so rusty the lock would probably have to be cut off and the rubber feet had probably never touched the ground after it was thrown on the roof, the pads looked brand new… lol
I do remember that they always had 2 armed federal agents that stayed close to the van anytime someone was working on it, and unlike others agency agents they had NO sense of humor…
Saw some neat unmarked vehicles my 7 years at that location… Got to know some interesting people too… One of my favorites was a US Marshal, he was a nut, but cool as heck, just wouldn’t want him coming after me for any reason… lol
Not a stealth police car but a stealth racer.
Back in the 70’s you could buy this kit for your VW Bug that included a Porsche engine/tranny and added/upgraded suspension. It was a rocket. The back seat had to be removed in order for everything to fit. And to really throw off the cars that wanted to drag this thing, the kit included a cardboard cutout to cover the engine that was painted to look like you still had a backseat, but there were a pile of books on it.
One of my fraternity brothers put a 912 engine in his VW Bug in the early 1970s. It was certainly a lot quicker than the other VWs.
Typical old school hot rodding, just put a bigger/more powerful engine in it to make it go faster…
In the NA (naturally aspirated) world of hot rodding, there is no replacement for displacement, (RPM’s being equal and assuming similar volumetric efficiency of course)…
The bugs from the 70’s were a little faster than the speed of smell.
State Patrol has been called about a fake cop pulling people over driving a Lexus operating red, white and blue lights and siren.
Dispatcher told me a caller said “I know you do not drive Lexuses.”
Such is why all law enforcement agencies through whose jurisdictions the authorized emergergencyehicle travels are notified.
Smells move quickly, actually, but I get your point. My friend’s bug was a 1960s model, even slower before the new engine.
I was curious about the “speed” capability of my brother’s '64 VW bug, and Google tells me that it took 22-23 seconds for a 0-60 run, and that its top speed was 72 mph. Apparently, my '73 Karmann Ghia was a tiny bit “faster” because it could do that run in only 21 seconds.
