8 Top Tips To Spot An Undercover Police Car

Updated: 01 Feb 2021

We have a hidden ‘enemy’ on the roads in the UK and it seems to be getting worse and worse. I am constantly surprised by the variety of undercover police cars there are on the streets. For anyone who doesn’t know, an undercover police car is literally a police car without any features which openly show it is a police car rather than just a fellow road user.

In this blog post I will try and give you some great tips to spot one (I am not saying speeding is ok, of course the best way to avoid undercover police is by following all the rules and regulations of the road).

1) Police car list

The first and most useful tip is a quick list of the most popular ‘undercover’ police cars out there on the UK streets
-Skoda Octavia VRS’s or standard
-Any Volvo
-BMW 3,5, X5s
-Hyundai Ix35
-Audi A3,A4, A6, Q5
-Jaguar XF

(These are the main culprits but of course some different areas have different cars…I know that London has E class Mercs, Mini Coopers)

2) Clean cars

Police tend to have to keep their cars spotless, again this is not fool proof because police can do a lot of miles in a day to get their car mucky again but it’s good to keep an eye out for strangely clean but normal looking cars.

3) Normal Number plates

If the car you’re suspicious of has a personalised number plate, ignore it because police won’t have the budget or the need to change their number plates.

4) 2 people in the car

Undercover police officers rarely travel alone, therefore if the car in question has 2 people in it, it should automatically go up in suspicion.

5) Strange grey panels by the headrests or in the front grill

Now these could easily be mistaken for anti crash technology panels in the grill but they are usually glossy. If you see matt grey panels these are probably police lights! Spot these = Slow down

6) Driving stereotypes

This is the way I trust most. Is the driver driving like the type of person who buys that car? Ok that might have made no sense. For example is the Audi driver tailgating? Or is the BMW going fast and weaving between traffic? If the BMW or Audi is hovering on the slow lane following road rules and regulations then they are far more likely to be an undercover chariot, again like the other rules this is of course not absolute but it should raise your eyebrows. (These are of course stereotypes)

7) A busy dash or bright interior lights

These are a great police car warning because police need all sorts of interior computers which will naturally emit a lot of light in the night. And in the day it will be easier to see black equipment hanging below the rear view mirror or peaking over the dash.

In London it seems police can have whatever car they want as their undercover but then again it’s impossible to speed or do anything in London anyways because of all the cameras!

This content was originally posted by a Car Throttle user on our Community platform and was not commissioned or created by the CT editorial team.

Comments

Few days ago in London I spotted an old and rusty looking ford transit van completely white and inconspicuous until it turned on the sirens.

You also have smaller aerials on the top or left rear of the car.. also you can tell from the windscreen as you see like a big green steer (bulletproof glass).

This applies in Northern Ireland anyway :P

Or…make sure the car following you is not a yellow ‘70 Challenger with black stripes. Of course, this is only a thing in San Francisco, If I’m not wrong.

Haha Driver: San Francisco

On that video I was half expecting a bus to have zig zags

Sometime soon visiting Latvia? Watch out for black STI imprezas. (hawkeye)

I saw an unmarked golf r32 pull someone over once near Glasgow.
But agree with most of the stuff here.
There’s rumours about the license plates if they’ve got a dealer under them (eg Arnold Clark) they’re not police cars, but if they’ve got nothing then they’re more likely.

Ooft Glasgow traffic cops are a pain, Them Mitsubishi ASX’s & bimmer 5 series’s that patrol that bit of the M8 as you leave the M74 (the 50 zone) are a nightmare if you find yourself accidently sitting in the 60s.

Here in germany the police is really proud of ther “Provida”-fleet (unmarked cars/bikes with a camera-system and speed-measuring).
As part of that, they do a lot of documentaries, in which the license plates are not always hidden (thank you, whoever edited those clips).
That way, by now, I know exactly what car/motorbike in which colour and with which engine to look for.
Going a bit further:
I even know how many of those cars my local police has, as they had an article in a local newspaper when they started using those cars, showing the whole fleet (6 cars) with license plates and all.