Unmarked Taxi - Westchester County Police

[firedude]

I'm not 100% Sure this is Westchester County Police, but it looks like their style of grill lights.  Seen at Rye PD.

Cuba lights in the grill and dual vipers on the rear deck.  It looks like a 2 head dominator on the front.  

Good thing Continental Airlines no longer exists!

 

[tvsjr]

Hmm, almost looks like ALPR camera in the Continental Airlines ad tent.

 

[JazzDad]

I just don't know.  If this rig tried to pull me over I guess I'd get on my phone and call 9-1-1 to see if it was legit.  Then I wonder how long it would take the dispatcher to reach that unit.

 

[tvsjr]

I would hope these are used primarily for investigations, PR, etc. There's no way I'm stopping for a taxi with a pair of grille lights and a stick in the window...

 

[pdk9]

I've never been a fan of taxis as an unmarked vehicle; most idiots on the road don't recognize marked LE vehicles or 50-ton fire apparatus as EVs, so having a taxi for something (other than a possible surveillance vehicle that doesn't initiate traffic stops) always seemed absurd to me.


The city I currently work for takes confiscated vehicles and uses them for our PD's street crimes unit; they have everything from Jeep Grand Cherokees to Nissan Pickup trucks, & I think they do a better job as an unmarked unit than a yellow cab. My good friend is a LEO in a nearby city & he advised me that they rent cars for several weeks to several months at a time, throw some blinkes in them, & then return them to swap them for a new vehicle. He's not a whacker like us so he couldn't tell me what kinds of blinkies they have or sirens (I'm interested to see how they hardwire & mount the sirens on a vehicle they're only using for a few weeks), but he says they rent everything from minivans to some luxury cars (you won't see them driving in a 745 or S500, but you may see a C class or 3-series)

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Cuba lights in the grill and dual vipers on the rear deck.  It looks like a 2 head dominator on the front.

Fidel Castro makes lights??

Ohhhhh, CUDA lights!!! :lol:

 

[lotsofbars]

They love their undercover NYPD Taxis here but I always thought they were waayyyy too underlit. If they keep using them, I'd hope that they do a better job of adding essential lights where they need to be, because a HLF and a couple grill lights and maybe 4 HAW's do NOT do the job. It's not that difficult to hide lights, especially with the invention of tiny LED's and the fact that nobody looks twice at a taxi. 

 

[Krsdog25]

First, in your neck of the neck regular cars may blend in but in NYC nothing blends in like being one of 13,500 yellow cabs. Second, the lights on this kind of vehicle aren't so much for stopping cars or alerting traffic on the side of the highway as they are for warning drivers and pedestrians "WATCH OUT I'M COMIN AT YA!!"  The guys driving these are typically plain clothes with nothing more than a badge on a neck chain for ID and the things they're investigating don't usually involve innocent tourists soooo right or wrong they figure any questions as to their legitimacy can be answered in booking.

The only thing wrong with this car is that it looks way too new and clean to be a NYC taxi.

 

[pdk9]

First, in your neck of the neck regular cars may blend in but in NYC nothing blends in like being one of 13,500 yellow cabs. Second, the lights on this kind of vehicle aren't so much for stopping cars or alerting traffic on the side of the highway as they are for warning drivers and pedestrians "WATCH OUT I'M COMIN AT YA!!" The guys driving these are typically plain clothes with nothing more than a badge on a neck chain for ID and the things they're investigating don't usually involve innocent tourists soooo right or wrong they figure any questions as to their legitimacy can be answered in booking.


The only thing wrong with this car is that it looks way too new and clean to be a NYC taxi.

You can blend in without having a taxi cab; there are always people in New York scanning the streets for a taxi to flag down, but they won't look twice at plain SUV or ordinary (that isn't a typical PD vehicle, such as a Crown Vic or Impala).


Also, it's easier said than done to just rely on sorting things out/establishing your identity in booking. Before you even get to that stage, you have to get the vehicle to STOP & then get the vehicle occupants to comply. Most people already don't yield or stop for fully-lit, marked vehicles, so getting them to yield for a taxi with a dash & grill lights with a few HAWs isn't going to be easy (assuming they're drivers that don't have their heads shoved up their a$$, buried in their phone, or not deaf from the music blasting in their car at point blank range to their ears). Then, keep in mind that many people are already suspicious and question the legitimacy/identity of plainclothes officers b/c they don't understand the concept of anti-crime & other plainclothes units that don't require their members to have the word "Police" printed in 4+ places on their shirt in big letters.


Most people are honestly flat out stupid, so good luck being a plain clothes officer driving an unmarked taxi, trying to pull them over for a V&T stop, & then, should the need arise, detaining them without any issues at all. And, for any V&T stop (even if it's not on the highway) is dangerous with all the aggressive idiot drivers out there; I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've nearly been run over wearing a vest and standing on the passenger side of a vehicle with all lights going, so some guy standing in a NY Yankees jersey on the side of the road with a shield that most ppl won't see hanging on their neck is no better. As mentioned above, it's not hard to conceal lights these days with all the advances in the EV lighting world; there are tons of lightheads out there that are <1" fall (or barely more than an in he) that can be mounted inconspicuously

 

[cgb]

Looks like somebody got the message about lacking light setups....

Interesting that this one's an actual LWB CV and not a P71.

 

[lotsofbars]

Looks like somebody got the message about lacking light setups....

Interesting that this one's an actual LWB CV and not a P71.

That's more lights than all the other undercover cabs here and it's STILL abysmal. What a shame. At least put HAW's on the roof lights. One NYPD Cab in midtown has those and they're much more effective than all the down low lighting and crappy TIR3 lights. 

And that is interesting, all the others I've seen are P71's or Nissan Altimas. Maybe they finally started to pay a little more attention to accuracy? 

 

[aggmeister2010]

I just don't know.  If this rig tried to pull me over I guess I'd get on my phone and call 9-1-1 to see if it was legit.  Then I wonder how long it would take the dispatcher to reach that unit.

I've seen a few videos of these Taxi Unmarked vehicles trying to run code through traffic, and people just don't move.  I'm assuming they don't believe that the car actually has any authority...

Perhaps a good idea for stake-outs or non-emergency undercover work or something, but people don't seem to respect a taxi with blue lights on the streets of NYC.

 

[JazzDad]

I think I'm going to fit out an undercover fire engine, recycled from an old ice cream truck.

 

[Jarred J.]

monster garage did a limo into a firetruck

 

[aggmeister2010]

^^ I wish my turnout gear looked like a tuxedo

 

[JazzDad]