Another unmarked police vehicle

Subaru Impreza Black - Reg Unknown - Seen on M40

Subaru Impreza Gun Metal Grey - BK05 ??? - Seen on M40

Vauxhall Zafira White - VX58 HNH - Seen at J1 M5

Volvo S80 Black - BU56 HWS - Seen on Stratford Road, Shirley

VW Golf R32 Gun Metal Grey - BU08 BKD - Seen at J9 M42

Vauxhall Astra Silver - V*** *** - Seen in Sutton Coldfield

Yamaha FJR Silver -Reg Unknown - Seen on A610 west of Nottingham and also in Matlock Bath

BMW 5-Series Black - KX09 FFV - Seen in Northampton

Some of the other spotted unmarked cars are as follows; 2006 scooby, 2006 evo, bmw 330i(M-Tec), bmw 530d estate, skoda VRS, forus ST, mondeo ST


Reg plate and colours, I'm sure will follow...

The skoda vrs cars are all at central skoda - took my car thee for service and their rear customer car park was full of them marked and unmarked. To be honest though, as good as this thread is I ain't gonna look at every car I see and think heh that's the one xxxx talked about as there's just too many to remember. Plus each time I see my friends car a black s80 as above am I going to think hurmm police or friend? Surely just being observant and sensible will get you by.

these days they use any new car which can keep up, the black VW serroicco i cant spell will let you off for speeding and wheelie if you say you did it by acciedent and was trying to control the wheelie, they laugh and walk off

.

.

.

Sorry to clutter up thread, but, thinking about this, and even I did it, but isn't this illegal of any sort?

Originally Posted by plowsie

Sorry to clutter up thread, but, thinking about this, and even I did it, but isn't this illegal of any sort?

Interesting debate, Von Teese (though perhaps jokingly) suggested above it may be obstruction, but it's not obstructing in the same as flashing your lights to warn of a speed trap, because we are not warning anybody where these cars are on a particular day or time.

To secure a conviction for obstruction would you not have to prove that this thread stopped the police from carrying out their duties effectively in a specific circumstance. For instance somebody would have to get out of a car and say "yes officer, I was doing 100mph when I first saw you in my mirrors, but I slowed down before you had time to obtain the necessary evidence, because I'm a member of the sv650 forum, and I recognised your registration number from a thread on there"

Also the information in this thread itself is already in the public domain, put there by the police as soon as they flash the blue lights in a public place. This thread has 492 views, lets assume only 10% of those live in the Madlanders area, and a further 75% are repeat visits as people see it in today's posts, or their subscribed threads. The M6 carries 110 vehicles per minute, many many times more people see the identity of these cars at the side of the motorway, than will ever see it this thread.

So even if the thread were illegal in some way, would the CPS ever bother with a prosecution?

If we removed the registration numbers the information is then anecdotal, little more than pub talk.

I can't delete the thread now, but if we decide it is illegal, then Mods please delete the thread.

[Red Herring]

Been asked if I think this thread is illegal and my view is that it is not. Provided the information posted on here was collected in the public arena then the very fact that someone was able to identify the vehicle as a police vehicle tends to suggest that at some point it was displaying blue lights, flashing someone up or otherwise doing police car things. If on the other hand the informant works in a police garage and they started posting up details of unmarked covert police surveillance vehicles that have never been identified in public as such then I think that may be another matter.

Having said all that I do wonder what possible advantage this information is to anyone. As has been said the chances of anyone remembering a variety of makes/models, let alone registration numbers, and then being able to spot them in their mirrors or otherwise in time to do anything about it is so remote as to be insignificant. We quite happily take our unmarked cars and bikes into the local biker cafe and let joe public crawl over them, take photos and otherwise admire/mock them (but no test rides) because we know quite well that their knowledge that they exist does far more good than the potential harm of identification.

Basically don't bother trying to remember what an unmarked cop looks like, just be suspicious of anything that starts to shadow or follow you if you are doing anything you'd rather wasn't filmed. If you're observant enough to roll out of it before we've got the evidence (just how long does it take you to do two 10th's mile at speeds worth talking about) then as far as I'm concerned you're good enough to get away with it.
Good luck!