More Florida agencies are using unmarked sports cars to catch unsuspecting speeders

One afternoon in late September as Officer David Garrett drove south on Interstate 275 toward downtown St. Petersburg, a driver in a black convertible BMW cut across two lanes of the highway.

Passing the 5th Avenue North exit, the driver changed lanes, tailgating the vehicle ahead of them, and then changed lanes, again.

"There he goes again, no signal," Garett can be heard saying as the audio on his dash camera engages. He, too, changed lanes, speeding up to follow,

[utubegreenfuture]

Sorry officer, I thought you were challenging me to race.

[jewishjah]

Appreciate you guys letting me know what cars they use. Real journalism!

[DeeRuss]

Imagine a V6 challenger pulling you over 😂

[tome]

One of the craziest things that I saw when I lived down, there was a blue Nissan maxima, platinum with murdered out windows and blue lights all over it pulling a speeder over. We are talking about a Maxima on 20 inch chrome wheels. They’ve been doing this a long time with very advanced undercover cars that you would never see coming.

[keepgrindingup]

DONT BURY THE LEAD...Cop actually found a BMW driver using his TURN signals

[DWBurns]

I am a retired cop from Ohio. Ohio prohibits unmarked units from initiating a traffic stop. If an unmarked car tried to stop me, I would not stop until I spoke with dispatch and they gave detailed descriptions on my vehicle. If they attempted to force me to stop, we would have a gun fight.
Unmarked is a good way to get killed.

[bernardtalbert]

If it's not clearly marked as a police car I would be scared to pull over alone on the highway fearing that it is somebody impersonating a cop and possibly trying to carjack me or worse.

[Onefourtyfour]

He said a fleet of v-6 Challengers with way too much enthusiasm. What are they going to pull over? Other V6 challengers? 😆

[outinthebackyard]

Speeding tickets are the least of the problems that police need to focus on.

[soothsayer]

The point of police is to be visible, not collecting speeding tickets!

[sandyca]

MY THOUGHTS:
1. If the GOAL is to stop people from speeding, then make yourself noticeable, that in itself will cause many to self check their own speed.
2. If the GOAL is to increase tickets/finance then unmarked cars is the way to go.
3. It use to be illegal for officers to hide behind signs etc in order to catch someone. Had the driver seen the officer he/she would have self checked.
4. It's a danger to have unmarked cars, people are less likely to pull over thinking it's not a real officer, which in it self will cause an officer to become angry that the person isn't pulling over.
5. The cars are pretty, but I don't think that's the way to go. Officers need to be set apart, not blend in. We need to know that police are out and about, it's good to see them, it brings a sense of security to the public.

[shiftydips]

btw, theyre playing a dangerous game cuz if it can be proven that the unmarked cop cars 'baited' someone to race then its inadmissible in court, there's already been many instances of that and it can result in a lawsuit against the department

[nicholasanderson]

Man I’ve never feared a cop car but a 5.0 is gonna be really hard to get away from😭

[C.Will_RT]

If you know what to look for, they still stick out like a sore thumb.

[rylordrylord]

They are doing that everywhere but we can spot them just by how aggressive they drive y’all ride on our bumpers reading tags dark windows so we can’t see you yeah we know the trick

[edbrown]

Kind of dangerous with all the police impersonators out there.

[jakeadams]

This is a good conversation to have. I was pulled over when I was 30 in south FL by an unmarked police minivan. I entered an empty school bus in a parking lot as instructed by the driver to collect a ball I had left on a playground. The local police was in an unmarked minivan staking out that parking lot looking for thieves breaking into cars. Unluckily, me retrieving my ball from the school bus looked very suspicious. The unmarked minivan followed me for about a mile before I noticed the blue lights, then another mile for me to find a busy parking lot to pull over. The whole time I was thinking... Am I being pulled over by a minivan? thankfully he was in full uniform and explained why he pulled me over and why he was driving the unmarked, and I explained why I was acting conspicuously. We reconciled and went on our way, but it could have ended a lot worse in different circumstances.

[tomasleitao]

This is just sad, more control, more government authority, more encroachment from the part of law enforcement. Florida is supposed to be a free state, not an orwellian police state where everything you do is being monitored and where you are forced to drive like an old lady at all times, this is just disgusting.

[SuperAgentman]

Funny thing is now the speeders know what to look for😂 well Dubai they have Lamborghinis and Ferraris as police vehicles. Quite a few states have unmarked sports cars as state trooper vehicles. I’ve even heard that some highway patrol departments in some states used confiscated sports cars that are unmarked.

[metaljew]

Cops have been using muscle cars for 40 years going back to the Fox Body Mustang 5.0’s as cop cars