Why don British unmarked police cars have LED signs on the front?
The idea of unmarked police cars is exactly that – no markings and very limited identification, designed to be stealthy and to catch the motorist out. In addition, in a recent test case in Glasgow, with reference to section 163 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act, police do not have to be in uniform either when stopping a motorist. So, to summerise, a plain clothed officer in an unmarked car may stop you legally. All this is designed to instill more public confidence in the police and to make us feel safer on the roads. Aye, right.
The answer to your question ultimately comes down to each individual force and even the heads of departments within each force. In my particular department we operate a few unmarked police vehicles. The difficulty when responding in such is that members of the public hear you but invariably do not see you. You have to be especially cautious responding in an unmarked police vehicle. We also found that just the grill strobes were not sufficient. As a result of our complaints we were given the old detachable blue light that fitted on the roof with a magnate (Starsky and Hutch type). Needless to say that this wasn’t very good, particularly at speed in excess of 100 on the motorway. Eventually each car was fitted with covert LED lights in the upper centre windscreen, blinkered so as not to distract the driver. Even though these lights are much better we still need to exercise caution in the plain vehicle, because there are still plenty of drivers that don’t see us.
