There is a new variation of an old crime that all of us need to be aware of: Fake traffic stops. It goes like this. A car with blue strobes slips in behind yours and attempts to pull you over.
It isn’t a new crime. Fake cops initiating traffic stops happens all of the time. The police are more afraid of people not respecting their authority than they are protecting the public, so they advise:
However, police officials are asking motorists to pull over for any emergency or law enforcement vehicle that is running its lights and sirens as quickly and as safely as possible and wait for the officer to approach their vehicle and contact them.
If a motorist thinks that the vehicle may not be an official law enforcement or emergency vehicle, the driver should pull over anyway and call … 911. A dispatcher should be able to confirm that the vehicle belongs to a law enforcement officer.
Of course, if it isn’t a cop, it’s now too late to get help. The cops will arrive just in time to take a report and perhaps photograph your corpse.
It looks fishy, so you decide to do what police advise: You try to call 911 and verify that the cop is a real one. Your cell phone has no signal. Oddly enough, your GPS mapping systems aren’t working either.
It turns out that the “cop” is a bad guy, this is an ambush, and your communications aren’t working because they are being jammed by a device just like this one.
Sure, jammers are illegal, but since when do criminals care about the law? So now what? If you refuse to pull over, you are in deep trouble if it IS a real cop.
Hollywood movies and television often portray burglaries as meticulously planned and skillfully executed events like Oceans 11. In reality, these crimes are rarely carefully orchestrated. The vast majority of burglaries are random, opportunistic acts. Until lately, that is. Electronic devices are becoming cheaper and easier to obtain.
There are all sorts of signal jammers, jamming WiFi, Cell phones, and other frequencies. Thieves are using them to jam security cameras and burglar alarms as well.
Keep a sharp eye out.
15 Comments
Birdog357 · September 15, 2023 at 5:54 am
This wouldn’t be a problem if cops used high contrast colors instead of camouflaging their cars like predators. There’s one local agency around here that has off black vinyl on black paint it’s hard to read standing 30 feet away with nobody moving…
Divemedic · September 15, 2023 at 6:22 am
I’ve said for years that, if the goal were traffic safety, all police cars would be marked and conspicuous. Everyone would drive slower because the cops would be visible. Since the real goal is generating ticket revenue, hidden and disguised cars are needed
WDS · September 15, 2023 at 10:18 am
With so many vehicles confiscated via their favorite game of “asset forfeiture”, Po-Po has a wide variety of unmarked cars to choose from for their departments. Mount some lights, toss in a radio and black out the windows if not done already and voila! I live in a town of less than 120K that is around 38 sq. mi. and the local guys (not county) have 3-4 unmarked rigs. We don’t have that much crime here in Chickenbone SC. They’re all dressed in semi-tacticool fashion at all times as well.
fporretto · September 15, 2023 at 6:55 am
So they’re no longer satisfied with the surround-and-bump tactic, eh? I foresee this phenomenon evoking a lot of road chaos…and a few dead thieves.
TRX · September 15, 2023 at 10:02 am
I had an uncle who was killed by one of those. County road, late at night, unmarked car with cop lights. A passer-by found him laying in the road some hours later and took him to the hospital. He was able to give a brief account of what happened, but died of his injuries afterward.
exile1981 · September 16, 2023 at 8:50 am
A couple years ago I guy in an RCMP uniform and cruiser drove around and killed people in the maritimes for hours. The real rcmp refused to tell people he was dressed as a cop for fear people would shoot at them or run from them. So people gladly opened their homes to the ‘cop’ only to be shot.
Lot of weirdness on that one.
Where did he get the cruiser? The claim he modified a crown vic and got custom decals made. Ford says they dont sell no cop crown vics to the public and asked for the vin # to track who it was sold too. RCMP refused.
The guns where supposidly bought in US and smuggled into Canada.
The uniform they claim that he made it at home. No one believes this.
A reporter reported he had withdrawn 100k from a special bank the public can not access. Its used to provide cash to undercover cops and a few trusted narcs.
The local motorcycle group he hubg with all say they knew he was an undercover cop.
Turdeau had new gun legislation waiting that he wipped out before the nodies were room temp.
WallPhone · September 15, 2023 at 10:20 am
If it is a real cop, expect this while you’re busy relaying information to the dispatcher and that person is conversing with various precints and agencies.
https://youtu.be/6Los6iSRcNM?si=nLSLkodrwhN8JfpI
Divemedic · September 15, 2023 at 10:25 am
PIT maneuvers should be considered lethal force, and there should be a strict legal framework for using it. There needs to be a clear and articulable threat to the safety and health of others on the road, not just a statement of “they didn’t pull over quickly enough.”
Using a car as a weapon is still using a weapon.
Big Ruckus D · September 15, 2023 at 10:37 am
One more time: fuck the police. They created the opportunity for this with unmarked units, concealed light bars, and using various random vehicles that were seized and repurposed as cop cars. If they all had a fairly standardized fleet with predictable and easily discerned markings, it would make it mote difficult (not impossible, of course) for criminal scum to pull this scam so convincingly on motorists who can’t have any way of knowing if it’s a “legit” cop or not.
As already posted by others here, we all know why they went to unmarked stealth vehicles (eschewing the old black and whites with highly visible emblems and lettering on them), so until they scratch that practice, the public should have the right to evade any unmarked and unknown vehicle that attempts a pull over, irrespective of how the vehicle may be outfitted. I’d add all police vehicles should be required to display special issue plates – front and rear – as while these can be faked (or stolen), it is another step a criminal has to take to replicate the look of an official unit,thereby making it a little less likely they will go to the effort.
Anonymous · September 15, 2023 at 2:03 pm
This has been going on for a long time. 55 years ago my (literally) fashion model sister was driving and got pulled over by an unmarked car with blue lights and the works. My dad was sleeping in the back seat and when he sat up, the guy took off. Hmmmm………
Women especially need to be careful.
Skyler the Weird · September 15, 2023 at 2:11 pm
I wonder why the cops don’t have dozens of these signal blockers in use during a riot as the rioters are using cell phones to coordinate their movements but then again, they’re there to protect the Rioters not us.
Unknownsailor · September 16, 2023 at 2:13 am
Washington State Patrol likes to use unmarked vehicles to do traffic enforcement. They are particularly hard to spot as they have regular plates, not the government plates that regular units have.
My local PD uses cars that are painted in typical black & white paint scheme, with a brush bar and compact light bar, so it is pretty easy to tell they are the real deal, even at night. So does the local sheriff. It is the WSP that has the concealed light bars. The WSP is pretty easy to keep off your back, though, because WA drivers are the sort that mostly do the posted speed limit in the left lane, so if you drive with a heavy right foot it sticks out more. I set the cruise at 6-7 over, and never get molested.
Aesop · September 17, 2023 at 8:18 pm
You can buy red and blue strobes that run non AA batts for about $10 at the Halloween Store right now. Do the math on that, and dumbass crooks.
If it ain’t a uniformed officer in a well-marked cruiser, I’m driving to the nearest police station.
Period.
They can cite me in their parking lot.
This is the same reason people don’t buy ninjas at 3AM yelling “Police!”
Crooks have been using that gag for years too.
When the cops start getting shot routinely for using gangster tactics, they’ll stop using gangster tactics.
Not before.
Folks oughta help them out with that decision tree.
Everyone wins.
Landroll · September 20, 2023 at 10:39 am
Agree with Aesop. State Trooper in South Alabama on I65 and on side roads, was stopping solo women and having his way with them. In North Alabama, another State Trooper, last name Cash, was stopping women and enjoying extorting efforts from solo women. Trust but verify takes on new meaning and importance in the present day.
Crime Awareness: Thieves Going High Tech · September 16, 2023 at 12:03 pm
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