to cop or not to cop

"PartyPooper2012" (PartyPooper2012)
08/10/2020 at 15:27 • Filed to: None

So a wrangle with out of state plates was in my state today. Some car was tailgating this vehicle. He flipped on his undercover red and blue lights. Tailgating vehicle backed off.

Question is this - is an out of state police with police lights mounted in their personal vehicle* able to flip lights on and/or pull someone over while out of state? Is it... police impersonation?

Wrangler had vanity plates so I assume it was a personal vehicle. I don’t know the rules for mounting official police lighting in their car.

DISCUSSION (24)

HammerheadFistpunch > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:35

Sounds illegal. how “tacticool” was the wrangler?

CB > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:35

I’d call it in, personally.

DipodomysDeserti > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:35

Cops here have been known to run out of state plates on their undercover traffic enforcement vehicles. I found that out when an asshole cop decided to drive ten under in a passing lane, then speed match me when I tried to pass him. I was in my turbo swapped and tuned WRX, so I blew past him, and then he pulled me over.

PartyPooper2012 > HammerheadFistpunch
08/10/2020 at 15:36

bigger than stock wheels. vanity plates. tints. Wasn’t decked out with snorkles or shovels/axes.

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:37

Some states allow red & blue to be used by private security or other “non-police” vehicles. Doesn’t sound like the Wrangler wanted to pull the guy over, just get him to back away. I would think perhaps that may be deemed illegal use of lighting equipment if he was seen by a local PD, but certainly not impersonation because again, he didn’t try to stop the other car - so long as he had a valid use for the lights in his state.

Might also have been a Fed. They use dummy plates all the time.

HammerheadFistpunch > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:37

Stickers?

PartyPooper2012 > DipodomysDeserti
08/10/2020 at 15:37

ugh! Get a lawyer? I don’t know if a cop has jurisdiction there...

facw > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:39

I’d guess they were doing something they weren’t supposed to be.

PartyPooper2012 > CB
08/10/2020 at 15:40

Wrangler didn’t pull anyone over. Just continued on his way. Way I see it, no harm done. Actually opposite is true. Tailgating was prevented.

Thing I don’t know is if it wasn’t just a local PD but some sort of idk... FBI DHS. NSA... I don’t know if they are allowed to have lights. I know FBI do, but others. Not sure.

PartyPooper2012 > HammerheadFistpunch
08/10/2020 at 15:40

yep. Something about F cancer and some others... Nothing crazy. 2 or 3 on back window

PartyPooper2012 > facw
08/10/2020 at 15:41

In a personal car, I think they can go anywhere they want. I just dont know about legality of using red and blue lights out of their state.

PartyPooper2012 > BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind
08/10/2020 at 15:42

Yeah. that’s a thing we don’t know. what dept he was with... if there was a dept at all.

HammerheadFistpunch > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:44

not cop.

facw > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:45

I think you’d treat them as just another motorist, which means turning them would be illegal. Also, no guarantee they are actually any sort of police in the first place, I certainly have seen lights mounted in vehicles known to not be owned police. The wannabe crowd is strong.

PartyPooper2012 > HammerheadFistpunch
08/10/2020 at 15:45

probbly right... but also dindo nothing so shrug.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > DipodomysDeserti
08/10/2020 at 15:50

that sounds fishy, I would try fighting that

MoCamino > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:55

Could have been a first responder in their home state. Some states allow red/blue lights for those folks, some don’t. What I’m thinking is they were traveling, got sick of being tailgated, and flashed the lights to get the tailgater to back off. If my speculation is right, it wouldn’t be strictly legal since first responders are only allowed to run the lights when they are actually responding to an emergency. Given the circumstances, personally I wouldn’t blame them as they could easily have been preventing an accident from happening.

Pure speculation, of course. Whatever the explanation for the lights, I guess it doesn’t bother me much because I really hate tailgaters. :)

Just Jeepin' > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 15:59

Not quite your situation, but m any years ago here in Indy a local bureaucrat was fired after using his city government car with yellow flashing lights to slow down someone speeding in the left lane.

Unfortunately it turned out the person who was speeding was a police bigwig in his personal car with his wife, and didn’t appreciate the u nauthorized enforcement action.

The guy who was fired appealed to the trucking community: he had known to swing over and slow down the cop by monitoring the CB and heard about someone driving at unsafe speeds. As far as I know no one did.

DipodomysDeserti > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 16:09

This was around eight years ago. The guy didn’t write me a ticket, he just wanted to stroke his ego.

DipodomysDeserti > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick)
08/10/2020 at 16:10

This was around eight years ago. The guy didn’t write me a ticket, he just wanted to stroke his ego.

TheRealBicycleBuck > PartyPooper2012
08/10/2020 at 16:26

T hey can’t legally pull anyone over outside of their jurisdiction, however, they do have the ability to use the phone and can call the local police and report the problem. I watched some morons taunting an out-of-jurisdiction officer once. They had the passenger window down and were literally calling him names and saying bad things about him and his fellow officers . He probably lives in my area but works for a department out of this jurisdiction. I sorely wanted him to phone it in, but he ignored them and turned right when they went straight.

I would guess that with personal plates on the wrangler, it was probably a volunteer fireman, not an unmarked patrol car.

DipodomysDeserti > HammerheadFistpunch
08/10/2020 at 16:35

It’s missing the requisite UFC, Crossfit gym and Punisher stickers to be a cop’s Jeep.

HammerheadFistpunch > DipodomysDeserti
08/10/2020 at 17:09

exactly

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > DipodomysDeserti
08/11/2020 at 14:10

What an asshole....