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Today going north on hwy69
i picked up a tail of a white crown vic with dark windows and take down lights in the grill and tow short ant on the rear cabin roof area
the limit was 55 and he went around and only slowed as we arrived at lindale. then once we passed downtown he again was behind me and at the 70mph sign i was trapped behind a slow dodge truck doing 69
so i flashed the lights and he moved into the rh lane and i went around, now doing 75 ish
then i moved back to the rh land and the car took off...so i followed about 20 car lengths behind at 80 plus along with about 6 other vehicles...
what struck me odd was this guy had dark glass all around, plain doors, a nice stetson in the rear window, a police interceptor badge on the truck trim fascia and NORMAL texas plates, no exempt tags., just plain old everyday vehicle plates
i lost him after we went through quitman...hwy 154 is 60 mph and its heavily enforced....but this guy took off and was roooollling


any idea what agency he was with? I thought rangers, but dont they have exempt tags


anyway...he was flat moving out and on a mission
made our boring drive back from tyler sort of fun for a change

Exempt plates?
Any decals at all?

If no, then I'm thinking maybe this is one of those cars sold at auction and this was just someone having a little fun with you.

C-dub wrote:Exempt plates?
Any decals at all?

If no, then I'm thinking maybe this is one of those cars sold at auction and this was just someone having a little fun with you.

normal plates, current safety stickers and plenty of take down lights in the window, older white male driving
it was still in great shape and had no visible scars on doors from removed decals, no smoking engine, or torn up lower valances
i thought at first it was an auction car.....but then as i watched it...it was a leo of some sort,
had a set of press uniform type clothing but the dark window really hid their coloring or any marks


but if it was an auction car...he drove very well and safe...but oh man we were speeding right along

Without stickers could be any agency. The law actually requires regular plates on unmarked cars (any vehicle with exempt plates must have the agency name in 2 inch letters in contrasting colors).

Two good bets for this would be DPS and the local constable. DPS supervisors get unmarked cars.

Maybe TABC.

I would suggest that this was some local agency such as Sheriff Office or PD. DPS supervisor cars have dash/windshield mounted LED or strobe lights not grill lights. Also normally have just one police radio antenna on the center of the trunk. A good way to know that it's DPS - look for an antenna that looks like a small black Dixie cup mounted off centered on the roof or trunk lid, that's the antenna for the in-car computer.

The Texas branch of MIB?

threoh8 wrote:The Texas branch of MIB?

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No way, they drive pickup trucks in Texas!

Detectives OFTEN drive unmarked units but still have lights on grill, front and rear dash.

C-dub wrote:Exempt plates?
Any decals at all?

If no, then I'm thinking maybe this is one of those cars sold at auction and this was just someone having a little fun with you.

Fake police are a real concern today, and we should all have the right to excercise caution without repercussion.

There are literally 1000s of Crown Vic "Police Interceptor" packages out there. They're popular with security firms that offer patrol service. A lot of security officers buy them for personal use, as well. My guess is that's what you saw.

They're cheap, generally pretty reliable, easy to work on and parts are readily available.

You can always find clean Interceptors in reasonably good condition on CraigsList.

srothstein wrote:Without stickers could be any agency. The law actually requires regular plates on unmarked cars (any vehicle with exempt plates must have the agency name in 2 inch letters in contrasting colors).

Two good bets for this would be DPS and the local constable. DPS supervisors get unmarked cars.

The Chevy I drove was unmarked, and it carried regular (or "alias") plates. Although there are innumerable unmarked cars out there carrying exempt plates, nothing is done about it, so don't be surprised to see them too.

mgwerks wrote:

srothstein wrote:Without stickers could be any agency. The law actually requires regular plates on unmarked cars (any vehicle with exempt plates must have the agency name in 2 inch letters in contrasting colors).

Two good bets for this would be DPS and the local constable. DPS supervisors get unmarked cars.

The Chevy I drove was unmarked, and it carried regular (or "alias") plates. Although there are innumerable unmarked cars out there carrying exempt plates, nothing is done about it, so don't be surprised to see them too.

Many years ago, when I bought a car from out of state and tagged it in Texas, the constable of Precinct 2, Harris County, wanted them for use on undercover cars, since the tags were still good for about 6 months. Since I didn't have to return them to the state of issue, I let them have them. Years later I did another car from Connecticut. They didn't get those as I had to return them to Connecticut.

powerboatr wrote:Today going north on hwy69
i picked up a tail of a white crown vic with dark windows and take down lights in the grill and tow short ant on the rear cabin roof area
the limit was 55 and he went around and only slowed as we arrived at lindale. then once we passed downtown he again was behind me and at the 70mph sign i was trapped behind a slow dodge truck doing 69
so i flashed the lights and he moved into the rh lane and i went around, now doing 75 ish
then i moved back to the rh land and the car took off...so i followed about 20 car lengths behind at 80 plus along with about 6 other vehicles...
what struck me odd was this guy had dark glass all around, plain doors, a nice stetson in the rear window, a police interceptor badge on the truck trim fascia and NORMAL texas plates, no exempt tags., just plain old everyday vehicle plates
i lost him after we went through quitman...hwy 154 is 60 mph and its heavily enforced....but this guy took off and was roooollling


any idea what agency he was with? I thought rangers, but dont they have exempt tags


anyway...he was flat moving out and on a mission
made our boring drive back from tyler sort of fun for a change

You can buy those cars a dime a dozen on craigslist and at car dealers. Having lights in the grill doesn't mean anything either since volunteer fd, ect throw lights on their cars. I guess if he was annoyed with you, he could have stopped you for following at 80

packina45 wrote:There are literally 1000s of Crown Vic "Police Interceptor" packages out there. They're popular with security firms that offer patrol service. A lot of security officers buy them for personal use, as well. My guess is that's what you saw.

They're cheap, generally pretty reliable, easy to work on and parts are readily available.

You can always find clean Interceptors in reasonably good condition on CraigsList.

My son's last car was a 2005 Crown Vic P71 Police Interceptor which he bought used. It was all white except for the black trim and grill. It had the A pillar mounted spotlight, and the window glass was all blacked out. We used to have fun together watching people dive their cars over to the right lane whenever we came up behind them in the left lane. We even had for realz cops who were pulled over to the side of the road wave at us as we drove by. One day, driving down Wm D. Tate along the southbound 121, we pulled up behind a slower moving econobox full of teenagers and smoke. All of a sudden the windows popped open and weed and rolling papers and smoke came sailing out the window. The guy in the back seat nearly broke his neck constantly looking around at us while my son and I kept our shades on and tried not to smile as we were laughing.