[FedCom] undercover vehicles

[ed]

a couple of weeks ago i was in NYC and observed a standard-looking taxicab 
with company insignia in hot pursuit of another vehicle on 33rd 
street.  what was unique about this taxicab is it had a siren and flashing 
red & blue lights hidden way behind the grill.  the driver was wearing 
street clothes.  it dawned on me that was a great cover, since there are so 
many taxicabs in NYC they simply become invisible.  i still don't know if 
it was local, state, or federal undercover.

the FBI is known to have used those ubiquitous brown UPS trucks in NYC to 
launch raids from, and in philadelphia the USSS operates a silver mercedes 
sedan as well as some more mundane undercover vehicles.  a portable 
frequency counter can be helpful in identifying the particular agency if 
you're lucky  enough to be somewhat nearby the vehicle while the operator 
happens to be transmitting.  seeing them key their mic at the moment your 
freq counter bleeps/vibrates is usually a good indicator...

-ed


At 01:14 PM 4/17/02 -0700, you wrote:
>This is fairly common for most any law agency... federal, state or
>local.
>
>For routine "non-undercover" work the various agencies generally use
>plain old gov't issue type sedans, usually with passenger-car-series
>license plates from the state where they're assigned.   Same as with
>most police departments, they don't particularly "advertise" that
>they're police cars, but they don't knock themselves out trying to be
>sneaky.  May even have one or two non-descript antennas.  Joe citizen
>may never make them as law enforcement vehicles, but cops, crooks,
>scanner hobbyists, and other street-wise people can usually spot them a
>mile away.
>
>On the other hand, cars assigned to more sensitive duties like
>surveillance and such will usually be MUCH more discreet, perhaps
>sporty, usually two-door rather than four-door, with either disguised or
>entirely concealed antennas.  For particularly important or risky
>investigations, they'll sometimes own or at least borrow vehicles like
>taxicabs, delivery vans & such.  The "fine line" that must be walked, of
>course, is to not make any of these vehicles TOO unique, such that if a
>crook sees the same car/truck two or three times he's gonna know
>something's up... and somebody... cop, crook, victim or bystander could
>get hurt or seriously killed.
>
>In smaller towns... well they will often borrow coppers from distant
>agencies, sometimes with their own personal cars.
>
>But don't tell anybody.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Arthur-Bryan E. Phelps" <aphelps@enter.net>
>To: <fedcom@mailman.qth.net>
>Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 09:30
>Subject: [FedCom] FBI
>
>
> > This may be a totally off the wall question, but does anyone know what
>make of
> > vehicles they currently use?  The past few days as I was leaving
>work -- I'm
> > only a block away from where the FBI is headquartered, I've noticed
>several
> > cars coming out of the lot, each with two antennas.  I'm wondering if
>I'm seeing
> > FBI Agents or US Postal Inspectors!!!! Just curious.