We once had an executive editor -- Stewart Spencer was his name -- who would periodically come out of his office and just stand there, facing the newsroom, with his arms folded. After a minute or two, he'd go back in his office. I finally asked him one day why he did that. "It worries 'em," he said.
I think that's the principle in operation here:
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ? A local company is making a full-size decoy cop car, promising that it will scare off speeders and crooks.
The look-alike police car would be placed on the street to stop speeders.
"I would slow down, sure," said one motorist.
The car isn't a functioning car. It has no engine, doors, or even someone to man it. The company National Police Presence is marketing this tool to law enforcement departments everywhere. At $12,990, any department can purchase the vehicle, tow it anywhere they like, and hope it slows traffic down.
I suspect they'd have to move the car around. If they just left it in the same place, people would eventually catch on. Me, I'd just start taking a different route.
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Or you could buy an older model REAL car, have it repainted for a few grand and save a lot of money.
This is nothing new. The Indiana State Police were doing it on the Toll Road during all the reconstruction near Chicago in the last few years. They didn't use fake cars, though; just retired ones that looked so outdated you could spot them from a mile away.
Used police cars are almost worthless. If it's got 200,000 miles on the odometer, the engine and body have the equivalent of 600,000 miles on them because they spend a lot of time parked with the engine idling. I'm told that the biggest market is using them in crash scenes in the movies.
Indianapolis used to let officers keep the car 24 hours a day, use it to haul the family around, run errands, buy groceries, etc. The cost, they figured, was minimal, the visibility worth a lot more. Makes sense. On the other hand, it turned out to be a thorny problem when the cop driving the car saw gunmen fleeing a bank robbery and he had a 5-year-old with him. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again! And being a lot stupider than a 15-year-old, I thought it was a brilliant idea when I first heard it.
About 80% of the time when I go to Kmart, there's a cop car parked in the fire lane. I don't think they're being called that often to arrest shoplifters. Maybe the local police department is renting out parked cars to merchants. It'd be a good source of revenue for the police department, and it'd deter crime, without the problems of civilians at risk.
Kevin's right...what a waste of money!
And I could swear that Tom Ostrogni once did something about an ex-cop car sitting near the Zoo a few years back...because I thought to myself...now THAT is creative.
In OUR area, there was an older Caprice Classic (looked like an ex FWPD car) parked on some corner lot...slowed a LOT of people down for a few weeks (until it was bought or stolen).
B.G.