fireman616wfd
Member
NYPD Undercover Taxi-IS THIS REAL?
- Thread starter cbpdogboy
- Start date
philyumpshus
Member
they had a decomissioned nypd taxi at the auction yesterday, i was so tempted to buy it.............
but i wound up buying a MTA police impala
but i wound up buying a MTA police impala
TheGatekeeper
Member
here in philly the police use to have a tx squad they were regular cops assigned to enforce taxi laws and keep a eye on cabbies during the huge spree of cab robberies in the late 80's they had 4 marked pd cars and two unmarked taxi's lettered like real cabs they were painted in fact in my dads old cab companys colors philly uses all kinds of municpial vehicles as uc cars gas and electric company vehicles mainly. now taxi enforcement is handled by the parking authority and they just have marked impalas.
As someone noted, the use of taxi cabs originated with the original Citywide Anti Crime Unit in the early 70s, which then became known as the Street Crime Unit, and expanded to pct Anti Crime Units. Street Crime then created a dedicated Taxi Unit. With the disbandment of the Street Crime Unit and it's personell distributed to newly established Boroughwide Anti Crime Units, the Taxi Squad now stands on it's own. Initially intended to reduce taxi robberies in the violent 70s by placing camaflauged plainclothesman in the same enviornment as taxis, their value was realized and expanded to generalized Anti Crime patrol.
BigWil said:
:undecided: Sounds like a good idea, but I kinda doubt that, seems like it'd get in the way of doing their cop duties.
TheGatekeeper
Member
Strobe Craft
Member
50theman said:
Never, ever link to photos from that site - always rehost them with Imgur or Photobucket. If you don't, that happens.
HILO
Member
CPDG23 said:
No sir. Yes it is Dallas PD, however that car was part of a nation wide drunk driving awareness campaign paid with federal money. LE agencies that participated offered up the vehicle, and half the car was wrapped to look like a taxi. The cars were parked in stratigic locations, in Dallas that would be near the different bar and club areas throughout the city. That specific car is a 2003 Crown Vic that was converted to CNG. The majority of 2003 Crown Vics in DPD were converted to CNG, and no one wanted to drive them. They were originally sent to patrol, where they collected dust. Then offered to SWAT, who declined due to no trunk space and the lack of available CNG stations. They then came to traffic, for the accident investigators, who took great thrill in having them towed after they ran out of fuel sitting at an accident scene for 5 hours. Finally the CNG cars were sent to Love Field airport, where someone had the very smart idea of parking them in the bottom of the parking garage, where they sat until a heavy rain storm flooded the bottom level, and the cars! The hand full that were left were sent back to patrol to be used as decoy cars that were stripped of radio's, camera's, and MDC's, and parked at various store parking lots to deter crime.
DPD does not do have an aggressive driving 'task force'. There are unmarked white Impala's in each patrol station that are strictly for traffic enforcement, while responding to priority calls as cover elements. It is most commonly called STARR, Stratigicly Targeting Road Rage. STARR was big in the late 90's with unmarked dark blue Crown Vics. Every once in a while, a group of patrol officers and a few traffic officers will do a street racing detail. And we have Home for the Holidays from Thanksgiving to New Years, and the weekends of Labor, Memorial, and July 4th.
And now my daughter is done with her homework, so away I go!
lafd55
Member
Was down in NYC yesterday and saw a NYPD Altima Taxi. Pretty simple lighting, with red vertexes in the front and blue vertexes in the reverse lights and red in the taillights.
SNOW SYSTEMS
Member
Anybody see these before?
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MtnMan
Member
NYPD has been using mock taxis since the 1970s, maybe earlier. I don't know about current practice, but they used to be identifiable because they had genuine Taxi & Limousine roof signs and registration plates, but not hood medallions.
lotsofbars
Member
Oh yeah, there are a lot of NYPD taxis. To the untrained eye (ie most of the population) they blend right in. I was on 5th Ave a few weeks ago on my bike and there was one performing traffic stops on the street. Very effective method of policing.
pdk9
Member
lotsofbars said:
I Disagree with that. Most of the time, the public is confused as to what a taxicab with a dash light is doing behind them, & there's very little lighting on it to be effective for most policing. Personally, I'd rather have unmarked, inconspicuous vehicles without any markings on them for daily policing and traffic stops, and have several taxis on hand just for stings and surveillance where you're unlikely to ever respond code 3 or pull someone over.
As someone else noted, the concept of unmarked police cars as taxis in the NYPD dates back to the early 70s. However, it was never intended to be used for traffic enforcement.
In 1971 the NYPD established the 'Citywide Anti Crime Unit' of plain-clothed officers and unmarked cars to combat the rise of violent street crime, in particular, armed robberies ("muggings"). The results were so succesfull they expanded the concept to precinct Anti Crime Units, renaming the Citywide unit simply the 'Street Crime Unit'.
With a rise in taxi robberies, the Street Crime Unit created a sub-unit called the 'Taxi Robbery Unit' so plain-clothed officers operating taxis could more easily monitor taxi drivers up close without revealing themselves until neccessary- perfect camoflauge. Another successful SCU sub-unit was the 'Decoy Unit' which was disbanded after a Transit Police Decoy Unit scandal in the late 80s.
In the late 80s or early 90s precincts started regularly receiving a taxi as part of their Anti Crime fleet.
The Street Crime Unit was disbanded in the wake of the Diallo shooting and it's personnel and vehicles distributed to the eight Patrol Borough commands to establish 'Patrol Borough Anti Crime' units.
In 1971 the NYPD established the 'Citywide Anti Crime Unit' of plain-clothed officers and unmarked cars to combat the rise of violent street crime, in particular, armed robberies ("muggings"). The results were so succesfull they expanded the concept to precinct Anti Crime Units, renaming the Citywide unit simply the 'Street Crime Unit'.
With a rise in taxi robberies, the Street Crime Unit created a sub-unit called the 'Taxi Robbery Unit' so plain-clothed officers operating taxis could more easily monitor taxi drivers up close without revealing themselves until neccessary- perfect camoflauge. Another successful SCU sub-unit was the 'Decoy Unit' which was disbanded after a Transit Police Decoy Unit scandal in the late 80s.
In the late 80s or early 90s precincts started regularly receiving a taxi as part of their Anti Crime fleet.
The Street Crime Unit was disbanded in the wake of the Diallo shooting and it's personnel and vehicles distributed to the eight Patrol Borough commands to establish 'Patrol Borough Anti Crime' units.
lotsofbars
Member
pdk9 said:
The officers are often in uniform in the taxis, at least in Manhattan. Also, they have a pretty extensive strobe system in the head, tail and roof sign lights. Those along with a HLF and red grill lights and it's pretty obvious that they're police.
TheGatekeeper
Member
pdk9
Member
lotsofbars said:
I've seen them a bunch of times and i know that the officers are in uniform, but:
A) most people don't see an officer in uniform in their RVM when he activates the lights. They just see a taxi with some lights, and they don't know what's going on until they stop and a uniformed LE walks up to their window
B) the "strobe system" is all clear strobes and amber strobes (in the roof turn signals), and most ppl aren't that bright, so I'll bet you that > 2/3 of the ppl pulled over are confused or suspicious when the unit pulls up behind them. Only whackers, LE, and other people that work in Public safety and have heard of the concept will know that a taxi w/ some lights on it is police; it is far from obvious to an avg civilian on the street
Using them for Surveillance, stings (ie using a UC officer as the driver if there has been a string of taxi muggings in a certain area), etc. are feasible uses, but regularly patrolin & enforcing V&T laws is not feasible, nor was it their intended purpose when the concept began
lotsofbars
Member
pdk9 said:
True. The newer ones are Altimas (gag) but they are better equipped lighting-wise. Even though they still blend in and whatnot, maybe it'll be a little less ambiguous.
RES347CUE
Member