Kind of car driven by detective

[Giant springs]

Hi, it's me again. Does a detective usually drive an ordinary (unmarked) car like I suspect he does? Would it be unusual if I had him driving a marked car in my story? Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it.

[McNulty]

That would be pretty unusual for a plainclothes detective to be driving a marked car, at least around here.

[Kimble]

I've worked for 4 agencies (1 county, 2 municipal and 1 federal) and I've never known an investigator with any of the 4 to regularly drive a marked police vehicle (as well as any agency I've worked with or have knowledge of). Marked police vehicles are typically for PATROL, not detectives.

Write your story however you wish, but a detective riding around regularly in a marked unit would be pretty silly.

[marinepilot]

The only time any of the investigators in my agency would be driving a marked patrol unit is if they were working an extra duty (security) job where it was needed. They would usually also be in uniform. But I've also seen investigators throw their uniform on and head to their security jobs in their unmarked. So, I guess it wouldn't be completely out of the question, just highly irregular.

[CPL1897]

Actually at my agency, First year Detectives wear Uniforms and drive a marked unit, basically to "transition" I guess...The definately wont take a regular call for service though!

[McNulty]

Actually at my agency, First year Detectives wear Uniforms and drive a marked unit, basically to "transition" I guess...The definately wont take a regular call for service though!

That doesn't make much sense.

[retdetsgt]

Actually at my agency, First year Detectives wear Uniforms and drive a marked unit, basically to "transition" I guess...The definately wont take a regular call for service though!

Really? That's pretty strange on so many levels.... The day we're promoted, we turn in all our issued uniforms and gear.

Detectives here drive "staff" type cars. Smaller and cheaper to operate than the cars we buy for uniform patrol. I can't think of any circumstance where we would drive a marked unit.

[mcsap]

Our Det cars were not even real Police cars. Just plain Chevy Impalas without any of the Police Package equipment. Those cars are cheaper than a pursuit rated car.

[retdetsgt]

Our Det cars were not even real Police cars. Just plain Chevy Impalas without any of the Police Package equipment. Those cars are cheaper than a pursuit rated car.

Same here, only they aren't that big. We really don't need all that stuff anyway.

[CPL1897]

It makes no sense, but I see stuff everyday at my agency that doesnt make
much sense..LOL

[retdetsgt]

It makes no sense, but I see stuff everyday at my agency that doesnt make
much sense..LOL

Don't we all?

[cntryboy0531]

Our Det cars were not even real Police cars. Just plain Chevy Impalas without any of the Police Package equipment. Those cars are cheaper than a pursuit rated car.

Same here. They have emergency red and blue lights, and a siren, but they are just ordinary Impala's or Ford Tauruses. Now, our street crimes detectives have the pursuit rated unmarked Impala's, but that's only because they actually go out and stir up trouble.

[retdetsgt]

Same here. They have emergency red and blue lights, and a siren, but they are just ordinary Impala's or Ford Tauruses. Now, our street crimes detectives have the pursuit rated unmarked Impala's, but that's only because they actually go out and stir up trouble.

We don't even have that. All we have are police radios. But we work in enough of an urban environment that if I needed a car stopped, I could get a uniform car to do it. And that was pretty rare, I didn't worry about traffic enforcement and stuff as a detective unless the guy was driving really reckless.

We always had a few new detectives that thought they were still patrol and would bother uniform guys with BS crap. They generally got enough pressure from both the older detectives and the patrol guys that they knocked it off pretty quick.