PolicePosers.com

Actually no they aren’t, but this car could be confused for a clown car. Brought to us in the past by eBay being sold out of New York (by what was assumed as a private emergency volunteer), it appears the new owner in Michigan is now trying to sell it. According to a member of the elightbars.org forum,

“the person wasn’t aware of michigan lighting laws, he had quite a surprise when he got pulled over, the first and second,and third times”

For those out there that are still confused at this point, blue colored lighting is a law enforcement only color in the great state of Michigan. This doesn’t appear to be a cop car in any fashion. So we will have to stay tuned to see if the car sells and if it is sold to another buyer unaware of their state’s lighting laws. Then people wonder why eBay and other sale sites restrict emergency equipment sales on their private web sites. Place your bid and maybe you can have you very own clown car looking emergency service unit!

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Enjoy!

This is another one of those subjects popping up more and more on message boards: volunteers who quit or resign from their departments, but refuse to give up their lighting on their POV. While this is a small topic, it is an interesting one that has our interest.

The story starts with someone who has invested a lot of time and money into their lighting setup, the lights more than likely conform to their state laws for volunteer POV lights and their permits, although for one reason or another they have to move on from their volunteering hobby. Then the dreaded fact of life comes up, that the lights must go. The former volunteer fights this choice for awhile, and ends up deciding for some reason or another, they are just going to keep them.

What is their motivation? Mainly it is whackeristic intentions; excuses we heard so far stretch from “I am a trained fire fighter/EMT/whatever and might need them” to “you know, because I can.” As we say, we aren’t against people using lights when it is needed and lawful; however people who think they are entitled or it is their right to do so due to their past we are against. Either these types are cast out of their department due to their behavior or they are moving, and don’t want to move on from their flashy light show to live the life of a “normal” civilian. They evolve from a legitimate lighting user, to a whacker, the moment they leave their respective department. Just like a former police officer doesn’t wear his populated duty belt or a former member of the military wearing their class A uniform everywhere they go.

So to wrap up this week’s update, know when to call it quits and to leave behind the dream. Lights are tools that should only be used by those trained, certified, and who use them lawfully and ethically.

Something we have been seeing very recently is vigilante impostors. These are the type that go out and impersonate law enforcement in the name of justice, or more likely they own justice. For the most part they are harmless but their very existence is to confuse the public into following the law. While there is a large following of people who think confusion is cool and harmless, we don’t see it that way and view it as unethical and wrong. Vigilante impostors take to the roads in retired police vehicles and illegal lighting and stop motorist that make them mad and warn them to be better. In the past few months we have seen more than a few different stories about older males performing these actions. The main reason for them to break the law was their opinion on their local law enforcement wasn’t doing enough. So they felt the need to go out and take matters into their own hands without any training or cooperation from the local law enforcement. The latest article we found on this phenomenon the alleged impostor even call the real police for backup on his cell phone and was caught this way.

So in essence, don’t go out and play cop when you aren’t asked to. On top of that don’t do it illegally using your own equipment. If you are unhappy with your local law enforcement, talk to them about it or even your local city/county government. Also see if your area has a neighborhood watch program or even a police auxiliary program. There are better ways to deal with personal disagreements on how the law is enforced other than impersonating and breaking the law to fight crime in your own way.

You have seen them at one time or another, escort whackers. We aren’t talking about just the wide or hazardous load escort vehicles (it is a legitimate job) but the whackers among them. With the lighting market more affordable and easier to obtain, some escort whackers have been brazen enough to cross the line from legitimate use to too much. We here at PolicePosers.com keep tabs on several venues that are either friendly to whackers/wannabes/impostors or embrace them with open arms. The escort whackers have been stepping into the spot light in recent times with their prolific abuse and overuse of lighting and even illegally or illegitimate lighting.

While the line of illegal and illegitimate lighting is different among different groups, we will highlight what we see here. A few escort whackers forget their presence is a passive one, mainly there for warning other roadway motorists of the potential hazard they are escorting. While this is what a lot of escort employees expect, others think they own the road they drive on and make attempts at confusing or intimidating motorists to pull over or otherwise yield to the escort service and/or the load they are escorting. Some examples are illegally colored lighting, flashing OEM lights on the escort vehicle itself (Tail light Flashers, Head Light Flashers), or even aggressive tactics such as using the shoulder of the road to pass and so forth. More than once our members have witnessed escort vehicles set up to look like in service police cruisers with lighting, graphics, and even uniforms.

So where is this all going? As time passes, REAL emergency lighting users will need to increase their vehicle lighting more and more to get the public’s attention and keep their response times low. One of the reasons that can be attributed to that is those who don’t need what they have (too much/non-needed lighting) and abuse what they have (treat their amber-only lighting as emergency response lighting). We are talking about overzealous whackers just like what we described above who stretch the limit of what they need in terms of lighting and how many laws they break to get their desired target affect. While most hazardous/wide load escorts are great people with proper lighting setups, some aren’t and makes the rest look bad.

Recently an article was published discussing how a larger police department is looking at taking steps on making their retired police vehicles look less like in-service police fleet vehicles. While a good measure, a lot of the steps that could be taken are easily reversible by wannabes who want the vehicle to look like a police vehicle again.

I’ve seen almost every style, make, and model of vehicle use for official purposes. The problem lies with how they are used. It is becoming very popular to look official so powerless people can get the rush by scaring Joe Citizen. Wannabes use lax laws, observation and attention to detail to accomplish this. I want to make this clear, spot lights and push bumpers have no reason to be on sedans owned by the common citizen.

I find it very interesting the popular police model sedans (Impala, CVPI, Charger) and their clones are the only vehicles you will find both of these objects installed. The defense that they both have valid uses wears thin and most people with common sense can see right through it. A common one is the “I got a push bumper to save my car from deer” excuse. It should be pointed out that wasn’t the intended purpose and if this was such a huge issue, why aren’t other sedans sold with the same type of accessory from the factory? A favorite for the spot light is the “I use my spot light on back roads at night.” I hear this excuse with those who have put in dual spotlights a lot. In my 15 years of driving, I have never had to use addition lighting other than head lights and fog lights. I have driven in everything from common city to roadless prairies and open grass lands. I guess I must be really lucky along with the other millions of drivers who drive each day.

Any time I hear someone call a retired police sedan aggressive, I venture to guess its one wannabe telling another wannabe that their ride is looking “police.” I can head to other retired cruiser forums and see people telling other to add all the police goodies to their car for the aggressive look. Let’s head to a ricer or other enthusiast forum and see if we see their members encouraging other members to add push bumpers, spotlights, antennas, or even PI badges and two tone official looking paint jobs.

Where am I going with this? I’m trying to bring home the point that even if they aren’t breaking a law, they are still crossing ethical lines. They are trying to convey the message to others that they are better than average Joe and using a police vehicle to confuse others into that statement. Normal people do not change their vehicles into police look-a-like vehicles and drive them with a grin on their face.

How should we curb this behavior?

I think the police should limit the sale of this equipment on retired cruisers. The adage “it’s not the equipment but the person who uses it to blame” is a little different in this case. The same is said for guns or anything dangerous but this statement is a little misleading. Unlike guns or weapons who’s purpose is universal, police equipment on retired cruisers has NO purpose to be there and usually the person has NO reason to show it publicly like wannabes do. Have an interest and want to collect at home? Fine, just don’t put it on a vehicle to imitate a police vehicle.

I rarely see any gun owner driving around with a gun in hand making mean looks at people (guns get used in the above argument all the time so I used it here). On the other hand, I see wannabes driving their retired look-a-like cruiser full of goodies in a manner to intimidate other motorists and getting a rise out of their reactions. Head to any retired cruiser enthusiast forum and you can usually find a couple of these threads full of these owners bragging up on how the public is scared of their ride.

Acting like the problem doesn’t exist and looking the other way OR convincing yourself and others that there is nothing we can do or putting the blame at “kids will always be kids” is not a way to handle it.

Originally Posted Here.

We originally covered this on our staff blog however we felt it was important enough to cover as a regular update. A recent news report was done on a younger male who was accused of using fake placards to abuse free parking spots in New York City. When the investigating reporter questions the male in question, he produces an unknown and possibly unofficial ID at the request of the reporter than drives off.

While this might not seem like a major issue, some things stuck out when we viewed the video. The younger male had lights installed in his vehicle possibly to make the parking placard look more official. We here at PolicePosers.com hear a lot that installed lights do nothing to hurt their effectiveness and also do nothing to confuse the public. As you can see from this video, a combination of lights and a fake placard do their job to confuse trained parking enforcement officers. When used in an official capacity, who wouldn’t say they would be used to confuse an unknowing citizen?

On part two of our whacker subculture summer updates, we bring you the SAR whacker type. Now we know there are legitimate groups out there who use lighting. We understand in some area SAR groups are needed. Most times these groups are endorsed by companies, public safety agencies, or even on their own. Also to add to that most of them are certified to do the services they do and are part of the overall emergency response doctrine.

With that being said, there is also a subculture of SAR whackers out there and we will discuss that here. In some areas where SAR services are needed but there is a vacuum, whackers might create an SAR group. With little training for motivation for public safety, these whackers outfit their car with borderline legal lighting setups and use them when they can. Most of these whackers will have little if any SAR personal gear but will be the first to show up to a lost child call in their POV’s with lights shining brightly.

These types of groups usually start up with a core of true wannabes trying to be official and thus evolve into full fledged whacker groups. At times, they might even use catchy names such as “XXXXX County SAR” or “XXXXX City SAR” to sound more official than other names without official endorsement from the respective cities or counties.

In the past there have been SAR groups that were started for the sole fact to imitate professionals. These groups will use their SAR status to springboard themselves into other avenues of the public safety field. A good example is the TAMSAR group (Team Alpha Medical Search and Rescue). This group started out as a simple group of kids forming a SAR group to an accused full fledged impostor organization performing law enforcement type duties using the Bureau of Land Management as their authorization.

In closing, we want to express SAR is a legitimate field, but as with security, it is a target of abuse and impostors. This stems from the fact there is very little national and state level certifications or official recognition of stand alone SAR groups. Another issue stems from the fact SAR is a broad field that entails a lot of duties and tasks. This gives impostors and other abusers a wide range of ways to commit illegal and unethical acts while under the umbrella of the SAR title.